Off White Magic
by Flying Tunamonger
Summary: What if history had went differently, and Albus and Gellert never parted ways? A chronicle of how it could have happened if they had not done so. AD/GG, AD/ED, Grindeldore, Alphias.
1. Which Came First?

So! This is my NaNoWriMo epic. In a nutshell, the alternate story of Albus Dumbledore and Gellert Grindelwald. Not canon compliant, this is a **major** AU, though I tried to keep as historically and canonically accurate as possible, given the circumstance :)

The characters live in my head, but they originated in JKR's and are hers. I'm not making any money off of this. I didn't have a beta for this, so any mistakes are mine.

Don't complain to me about the content and don't say I didn't **warn** you. This story contains: Mpreg, Godwin's Law, severe lashing, sex, bending of historical events, defiling of historical landmarks, heavy drinking, death, gore, and probably a few other things I've forgotten. If it offends you, stop reading.

And with that, the first chapter of Off White Magic! Enjoy!

**Which Came First?**

--Albus--

I was 11, and I was away when it happened. We were getting my books for my upcoming year at Hogwarts. I will never lose the sound of my mother's angry voice, Aberforth's confusion, and the impotent rage of my father. They had not deigned to stop at beating her. She may have recovered from just a beating. However, they did unspeakable things to her body as well. The blood...the torn bloody dress, broken twigs of her fingers, blackened eyes and.... It was horrid, still is horrid to remember. My father had killed the Muggle boys involved. They were dead when we returned, and Ariana forever changed.

Percival Dumbledore left in silence and he did not fight the Aurors that came for him. My mother did not cry and I did not either, as horrified as I was. Aberforth cried like a baby of course, though he is not so much younger than I. I was more concerned with my own future: _What would we do without our father? Was I still going to Hogwarts? Why did this happen __**now**__?_

I soon found out what it would mean to lack our father here. Our mother gathered us one day and we were packed and moved from Mould on the Wold to the backward town of Godric's Hollow. The move took less than a day. It was a far cry from our nice house. The wood flooring and paneling was scuffed and worn down with age, no shine to ever grace it again. No matter how much our mother cleaned, the place always remained a little dusty in the corners.

Aberforth was ecstatic however, as we were allotted a large plot of land than the one we'd held in the city, which meant we could keep livestock. Aberforth wore my mother down until 2 goats were purchased, a female and a male, and from that point on my brother spent his time with them.

I was less than impressed with the extra land and instead immersed myself in books. My mother explained that yes, I would be going to Hogwarts. My dedication to my studies increased, what little I could learn from books I absorbed ravenously. I was determined to pull myself out of the dump our life had become and rise above it, at any cost.

The morning was crisp the day that I left for Hogwarts. I was very worried about leaving, despite my earlier thoughts of escape. What if they did not like me? I did not know what to expect from people, they were not predictable like books. My mother whispered something in my ear, but I did not hear her.

Then I was boarding the train. It happened so quickly that I was bewildered.

I was not expecting that the tale of the "Muggle killer" Percival Dumbledore had reached as far as London. The knowledge that his son was on the train to Hogwarts had spread like wildfire, and I found myself the target of glares and whispering, even dodging a few curses aimed my way. Slowly I made my way up the train, sliding doors open and peering inside. At each door I was met with unwelcome looks or insults. It went on this way until I came to the very last carriage, by then straining to drag my trunk alongside me. I desperately hoped that this last carriage would contain a soul capable of a shred of decency.

I stood there for a very long time before my shaking hands touched the cold steel of the door and slid it open. Initially I thought the car was empty, so quiet was its single occupant. The tiny boy was curled against the window and did not turn towards me for a long time. Frowning but without a better choice, I shuffled into the car and heaved my belongings overhead with difficulty.

When I collapsed into the seat across, he was looking at me and I saw why the car was empty. He might have looked normal if it weren't for the greenish hue of his skin, and the distinct pockmarks of someone who had recently been ill, with what I guessed was what my mother had called "Dragon Pox" in passing once, when speaking to my father late at night. I did not quite know what they had meant by it then, for my younger self thought that surely **dragons** did not just go walking around Britain giving sicknesses to small children! But this child looked only recently well enough to ride the train. I winced and he blushed and looked away from me.

"You don't have to stay if you don't want to. I understand if you don't want to stay....."

His voice was quiet and wispy like steam. He returned to staring out at the rapidly rushing forest outside, one hand curled unconsciously into his hair to shield his face. I peered at him speculatively and reasoned to myself that if he were contagious, he wouldn't have been allowed on the train. I put on my best smile and sat beside him, curling my long legs under me, then leaned over his shoulder.

"What is your name? Everyone is mean to me too...." He turned to me, hazel eyes sparkling as he realized that I had not decided to treat him as contagious.

"My name is Elphias," he chirruped. "Um. Doge. Elphias Doge."

He flushed and held out his greenish hand without thinking, and withdrew it just as quickly, frowning. "S...sorry. I...."

I murmured a quiet platitude to him and waited for for a scathing remark that did not come. Clearly the news of my father's reputation had not reached this boy. I was now hesitant to give my own name.

"And you?" Elphias had picked up on my reticence and was peering at me through his messy brown hair. I sighed, there was no way that I could put this off indefinitely.

I gathered my wits and braced myself. I whispered, "Albus. Albus Dumbledore."

A quiet 'oh' was the only response from Elphias, and his eyes widened a fraction at the admission. I clenched my teeth and waited, but no scathing response was forthcoming.

I chanced a look, and relaxed. His face was calm, and for a moment I thought had not heard, but he spoke again before I could say more.

"I'm sorry. It must be hard for you."

I flushed at that, so he **had** heard. And he wasn't edging away from me! And he was smiling! Smiling as if I did not carry this shame with me! My auburn hair fell into my eyes, and I blew at it impatiently. He giggled and pushed his shaggy hair out of his eyes, "It's distracting isn't it?"

"What?"

"Our hair, it always gets into my eyes"

"Yes, but I enjoy it this way"

"Not so much for me...but there was not time for me to get a haircut before I came"

"I see..."

We sat and talked for the better part of the ride, the scenery passing us by unnoticed. Soon enough our excitement turned to nervousness again as the train began to slow. Reluctantly I removed my trunk and braced myself for more ridicule. However, when the doors to our car opened the distracted Prefect ushered us hurriedly off of the train, not even sparing me a look.

Waiting for us were carts that were pulled by the most terrifying animals I had ever seen. They looked like horses that had been dead for two years and then reanimated to pull the carts. I shivered as I stared at them, wondering whose idea it was to have these hideous things pull them. _Didn't Hogwarts know to use horses?_ I thought. But everyone shoved past me, unseeing. Elphias paused beside me, confused at my resistance.

"Come on Albus! We should get a cart before they are taken!" He tugged on my sleeve, surprised when I stood my ground.

"What is it? Horseless carts are not so interesting!" I flinched and allowed him to drag me along. He couldn't see them, and I realized that nobody else could either. What did it mean?


	2. Tangled Mind and Desire

**The Tangled Mind and Desire**

I did not find out until my 6th year what the creatures were, though I had suffered the sight of them for every year since then. They were called Thestrals, and they were magical creatures that could only be seen by those who had been touched by death. This explained why most of the students could not see them.

Elphias clung to my arm as the Care of Magical Creatures professor ushered us into a circle. Some of the students looked confused, some terrified. They could only hear the shuffling and see the imprints of hooves in the snow. Only I could see them, and I did not want to bring attention to myself by announcing that I did. There were screams of horror, even from the boys as the rack of meat disappeared slowly, the sounds of chewing quite audible. I swallowed again and again, just as scared as my fellow students, but for different reasons. I struggled to focus on the droning words of the professor.

Soon enough, the Thestrals lost interest in us and wandered away, and we headed back inside.

Elphias clung tenaciously to my arm as we made our way back through the snow.

"What did you see? I know you saw them! What did they look like?" Elphias whispered urgently in my ear, tugging at the black fabric of my robes. I explained what I had saw in great detail, to his delight. I sighed, Elphias could be horribly annoying at times, but he was my only close friend. I had many admirers, sure, but I had managed to keep them at arm's length with a smile and sometimes a nonsensical remark. I knew I could not get close to anyone.

They told me I was handsome. But when I looked at my too-thin reflection, I could not see it. I shook Elphias off to enter the portrait hole after a hastily mumbled "tweak"and made my way up to our rooms. He followed me up like a puppy and sat on his bed. I toed off my boots and peeled off my drenched socks, balling them up and tossing them in the general direction of my trunk.

I'd known for months that I was different in more than just one way from the other boys my age. A quick look around the common room told me that I should be interested in one thing: girls. I flopped onto my back and stared up at my bed curtains. They held no interest to me, and I struggled with it each day. Elphias was still looking at me from across the room and he could sense my unease. He'd been born a strong Legilmens and read thoughts like people breathed air. All I wanted to do was think, and I could not do that with him present. He knew me more than I knew myself and I wanted to be alone with my thoughts. "Elphias..."

"I know." He sighed and left the room quietly.

I shut my eyes tightly and tried to will away the insistent erection I always had around him. It didn't work of course, it was all I could think about. I drew my curtains and curled onto my side. _Girls, think of just one girl, one!_ I told myself. _ Anna with her sweet smile, always shy. Wild Nettie, scandalizing the boys by wearing trousers. Buxom Geneve, looking down upon us all. _I thought of them, tried to call them into my mind and light the same sort of flame I felt for Elphias. If I was honest, every boy I saw near my age lit this fire. But as hard as I tried, I could not call up that attraction I felt for the boys and place it upon the girls. Sure, I thought them pretty, but in the way that a piece of art was pretty. Sexless.

I sighed. It was no use. I was attracted to boys, and there was no use in fighting a fight I had no hope of winning. It had to remain a secret I thought, my mind wandering to a Muggle arrest not so long ago for the same thing. Elphias knew of course. I speculated if it was not out of loneliness than actual desire for me that he stayed so close. I felt a stab of guilt at the thought that he might be with me out of loyalty instead of a baser desire. I wanted more than anything not to be the only one that felt this way.

--Elphias--

I made my way out of the dorms reluctantly, not really wanting to go down to the common room. It was noisier than just sound for me because the thoughts of everyone in the room were open to me. Even the few people who lingered here over the winter holidays were too much for me. Most would kill for an ability like mine, but truthfully I just found it noisy. The thoughts of people are cluttered, chaotic masses, and I could feel every thought and desire clearly. The only students that were not open books to me were the 7th years, but even they could not control their most fleeting thoughts. Seventh years were merely not as loud, even some of the teachers were loud.

I am a born Legilmens, but it is a secret. I've managed to keep it a secret from nearly everyone I have ever met. I was sure I would have no friends at all if they knew I knew their thoughts so intimately. Few wanted to be my friend **already, **so it remains a secret. My parents know of course and unfortunately also the one person I had hoped to keep it from. Albus.

It had been an accident, in our 5th year. Albus' thoughts of me were too much to take, and I blurted out that I felt the same way. He was terribly angry with me and we didn't speak for a week. He thought I had invaded his thoughts purposefully. Like I could help it. I explained to him this curse of mine and thankfully we became fast friends again. But he sends me away when he really wants to think now. I suppose it's only fair.

I escaped the Gryffindor common room and headed to the library. At least then I could have quiet, as it was seldom filled unless there were exams, and it was now winter break. Most of Hogwarts had went home for the holidays. Halfway to the library I decided what I really desired was some fresh air. I frowned. I was not dressed properly to go outside, but I did not want to go back into the common room, or worse, up to our dorms again just for proper clothing. I shrugged and headed towards the door anyway. It wasn't curfew yet, so I passed through the halls unnoticed and stepped into the chill of a midwinter night, my breath freezing in clouds around me.

_Surely there will be nobody out this __close to curfew__,_ I thought as I trudged my way through the snow, my shoes and socks quickly soaked with melting snow. I didn't even know where I was going. Somewhere where I didn't have to hear everyone all the time, as if such a thing were not merely temporary. I made my way to the bridge, at least it was sheltered somewhat from the cold.

I was used to detecting the presence of people by their thoughts and not the sounds their bodies made. I didn't hear them and that should have been my first warning. I was not a very strong boy, and the arms of the three 7th years that grabbed me were like steel clamps.

"So the little faggot has come to take a walk has he?"

"What are you doing out this late, going to meet your lover?"

"He wouldn't want you anyway"

I could hear their voices, but not their minds. A surge of icy panic washed over me. I found the silence of their minds more disturbing than the hateful things they spat at me. One of them kicked me down into the snow and I landed badly. Ice and pebbles bit into my palms as they slid on the icy surface of the bridge. I cowered and braced myself for their kicks and did not hear what they said to me. It would not be the first time I had been beaten upon.

When two hands circled my neck and squeezed, other hands grabbing at my clothing, I screamed. They'd forgotten to gag me, and my scream echoed along the silent landscape. I put all of my strength into the effort, as hopeless as the cry was this far from the castle. A hand clamped onto my mouth and nails dug into my cheeks, and I realized the cry was useless.

My shoulders slumped and I heard the group of boys snicker as they continued to pull at my robes. I heard a rip and saw a button fly into the darkness. Someone spat "Incarcerous," and to my horror scratchy, shoddily magicked ropes were snaking around my ankles and wrists, burning their way tightly around them until I was hobbled and forced to kneel before them. A scratchy, frozen length of rope snaked around my neck as well, and I swallowed helplessly as it coiled tight, just shy of strangling. One of my captors pulled at my hair, and the rope snaked between my lips when I cried out, tasting like dirt and ice.

The cold crept into my bones, and my fingers and toes were already numb and tingling. I shook uncontrollably with cold and fear. They were arguing amongst themselves over my prone body. I feared what might come next, for I was not certain now that they only intended to beat and humiliate me. _I don't want to lose my virginity like __**this**__, anything but this!_ I pulled at the ropes, but even if my fingers had not frozen into claws, I would not have been able to escape them.

A kick caught me off guard when they noticed I was struggling. Their hands were back upon me, their frigid, slick fingers grabbing at my robes. _**No!**__ Please...not this..._

One of them grunted, much louder than was normal, and a flash of light just behind me illuminated the bloody snow at my fingertips. Another grunt, the heavy weight of one of the attackers knocked me onto my side. I winced as my bare skin scraped the rough wood. What was happening?

I had gratefully fallen in a manner that I could now see. Albus! His robes looked hastily donned, but his hair crackled with withheld magic, the light of it flashing across his square glasses ominously. He pointed his wand relentlessly at the remaining boy, who stood his ground. This was the leader and he was not going to go down without a fight, his own wand pointed at Albus.

"So the boyfriend has come to save his faggot of a friend has he? Well come on then! You're only a 6th year, bring it!" Albus' sneer chilled me more than the cold.

I could not see their faces in the darkness that settled upon them between pulses of magic and the light of the moon. They paused, just for a second, sizing each other up, then the light was blinding and I was forced to shut my eyes against it. I could still hear the pillowy floof of snow as a spell missed, speckling me with flakes that melted into droplets on my cheek. The uneasy, scratchy sound of wild magic had a rough, jagged sound, and it was unlike anything I'd ever heard. I'd never concerned myself with the sound of it. Their feet scratched upon the icy ground, a sickening, slick sound as shoes scrabbled for traction. Then there was a loud "OOMF" and I saw a body fall into the snow just beyond the bridge.

It had taken under a minute. I dearly hoped it was not Albus who had fallen. I didn't open my eyes, though the flashing behind my eyelids had now ceased. I was still afraid, and unable to suppress the now constant shaking of hypothermia.

For a moment, there was utter silence. _No...it couldn't be! _I thought.Then I could hear Albus' worried thoughts and I sighed in relief. His thoughts mixed with anger and some cold emotion that made me afraid. But I relaxed when he pulled me into a sitting position with the utmost carefulness. With a soft command, the ropes disintegrated into ash and I brought my hands up around my aching neck unconsciously, rubbing the burning rings there. A warming charm suffused my body, and Albus draped his outdoor coat around my shoulders, also warmed. I sat there for a long time, he beside me, with his hands on my shoulders until my shaking ceased.

"_Lumos_" Albus was frowning, his hair wild around him, and I saw his face and body were unmarked.

"It's OK. They will be out for quite some time" I started, squinting into the darkness to see the inert bodies of my attackers in the snow just beyond.

"We should go. Do you want to go to the Infirmary?"

I shook my head vigorously, there was not a force in this world that would make me suffer **that **indignity. Albus pulled me gently to my feet, and I found I did not have the strength to walk yet, and leaned heavily upon him. He bore it without complaint, but I could feel his muscles tremble with the effort of holding me upright. I looked back at my attackers, wondering if they would remain in the snow.

"They are unconscious, not cursed." Albus said simply, not looking back at their prone bodies. He grit his teeth and for a moment I saw rage flit across his face again. I suppressed a shudder at it and the violent images coming unbidden from his mind. I decided that I never wanted to see him angry again.

Once we were inside, Albus pressed my back to the wall and held my shoulders. I struggled against him though the no other part of him touched me, helpless fear jolting through me. Frowning, he let go of me. I slumped to the floor and he knelt next to me.

"I'm sorry Elphias, but you must walk on your own if we are not to be stopped in the hallways."

I frowned. Of course I would have to walk on my own, since did not relish the thought of the infirmary. Sluggishly I pulled myself to my feet. I swayed but held steady, and his hand gently held me at my back, only the lightest pressure upon it. Albus did not remove his hands from me through the long, laborious walk up to the Gryffindor tower, through the common room, and up to our dorms. I needn't have worried about being seen; we walked past nobody of importance on the way, and nobody was in the common room when we passed.

Truly, nothing might have come of this. We might have stayed the sexually frustrated wizard and his faithful companion. But it was winter break and we were alone, all our usual room mates gone for the holiday. I removed the heavy coat from my shoulders and tossed it carelessly onto my bed and frowned at the remains of my robes around my waist, streamers of fabric tickling my thighs and slipping off my shoulders. I did not have to look up to feel Albus' thoughts spike lustfully at the sight, mixed with concern at my bruises and cuts and a curious need to protect.

I didn't know how I felt, I was completely unsure of what was to come. To be precise about it, I had much less polarity in my desires and found females attractive as well. But Albus...he seemed to embody what I liked about both sexes. His eyes flashed, and I could feel his thoughts, the hesitant, raging desire, jumbled worry and to my surprise, his own nervousness.

--Albus--

I don't think that Elphias knows exactly what happened when he screamed. I am quite certain that I did not hear it in the sense of sound, though it burned my thoughts and hurt my ears when it reached me. I had seen a flash of where he was, in quick succession with fear and panic. Followed by ominous silence. No questions, I had quickly dressed, grabbed my wand, and raced down to where I had remembered seeing him from that quick flash of memory. Running through the snow, shoe less, I was later to realize.

I had reached him mostly naked, tied and gagged in the snow with the hands of three very large 7th years on him. Anger, jealousy, and a mortifying jolt of lust filled , memories of my broken sister served to fuel my fury. I quickly stunned two of them before they knew they weren't alone. The third however saw me, spat an obscenity and pointed his wand at me. I was, in my not so humble opinion, one of the most skilled students at Hogwarts. I was fully aware that this boy...no, this man was equal to myself. But he was confident that no willowy little 6th year would get the best of him.

I easily sidestepped his clumsy curse and blocked a second. I caught him off guard on the third and stunned him like I had the other two. I watched him crumble to the ground and resisted the urge to spit upon him and tread across his prone body. Anger burned my veins and ground itself into my bones, it was a struggle to control it. My eyes alighted on Elphias' prone body in the snow, and the anger drained away, replaced by worry.

As we walked back to our dorm, I mused that I would need to learn Occulmency, for surely that is how those boys had managed to ever come upon him unaware. And to mask my own embarrassment at my arousal at the feel of Elphias beside me. I was certain that he knew it and my cheeks burned furiously for it. His neutrality was somewhat disconcerting to me however, I did had no wish to force myself upon him. But the sooner we got to our empty dorm the better, in my mind.

When Elphias discarded the coat and stood there unsure, just an arm's length from me, my cock twitched at the sight. It was not so much that he was a very attractive boy, but I could not tamp down the fire that seeing him lit within me. Naked male flesh, what small glimpses I had seen among my dressing roommates and the showers were enough to keep me in a perpetual state of frustrated desire. I reached out, the tips of my fingers grazing his exposed sternum and he shivered. But my eyes were drawn to the myriad of cuts and bruises upon his upper body. Along his sides the deeper puncture of fingernails left angry red half moons from where where they had held him, crossed with welts left by the crude ropes.

Reaching for my wand, I drew closer to him and pressed him against his bed and his knees trembled against me as he struggled to remain upright.

"Relax, we must heal your wounds..."

"Albus...."

"Lay down, it will be easier..." I couldn't hide my heavy breathing as I tried not to kiss him and press him to the bed. He tensed against me, his hands coming up to push me away, so I'd thought. But he only used the leverage to push himself onto the bed, then lay on his back, looking up at me nervously.

I climbed upon the bed, my knees sinking slightly into the soft mattress and, blushing more fiercely than I have ever blushed, straddled his hips. He was blushing as I looked upon him, but his eyes were shut tight. I sighed and caressed his cheek lightly. Gathering myself, I took a deep breath and attempted to tamp down my arousal so I could focus on healing his wounds. I drew my twisted wand up and whispered "_Episkey_" and a light red stream of magic flickered against the cuts, licking at them until they left his dusky skin clear in its wake. My fingers caressed him as light as a feather in the wake of the newly healed flesh.

When I reached the red marks on his neck, I gently lifted his head from the pillows and watched the tendrils of magic seal the wounds. Elphias made a small sound and I paused, frowning slightly.

"Let me up Albus..." Flushing brightly, I let him scramble from under me, my pulse in my throat and groin. I expected him to escape, to run, but he merely leaned off his bed, digging into his trunk. He emerged with a dusty jar and handed it to me. "Healing balm. My mum always sends me with a jar of it every year..." I laughed quietly to myself. Elphias' mum was always overprotective of him and the gesture warmed me.

I took the jar from him as he lay back down, opening it and marvelling at the tingling sensation on my fingers. "This is..."

"Dittany."

"I see..." Dittany was an expensive herb. It was something that was never mixed into the potions or balms of anything my mother had ever made, though hers worked well enough. It brought home the stark difference between our backgrounds again and I pushed it rather forcefully to the back of my mind. Elphias placed a comforting hand to my knee, though the gesture merely sent shivers through me.

Elphias lay back again and looked at me expectantly. I dabbed a small bit of the tingling balm onto his chest and the heat of it pulsed through my fingers. Pressing the flat of my palm to his flesh, I rubbed the balm in, gently sliding it over his skin. Experimentally, I grazed my fingertips over one dark nipple, and he arched against me, his breath suddenly heavier. I paused, and I caught a glimpse of his darkened hazel eyes before they shut again and he hissed when I touched him again. The sound of it made my hardness twitch and I grinned at him when he opened his eyes again to peer at me again. Then I bent to lick at the other nipple and his hands, previously idle, twisted into my long auburn hair.

The salty taste of Elphias' skin combined with the slight acid of the balm made me crave more. My tongue slid roughly against his hardened nipple again, my attempts at healing forgotten. He made an encouraging sound when I pinched one nipple with my fingertips, and I cried out as his fingers tightened in my hair painfully. He released his grip immediately and we looked at each other, panting. The silence stretched out for a moment, then broke when Elphias smiled at me. He twined his fingers in my hair again, gentle this time. "Sorry..."

"It's okay..." I flushed, suddenly all too aware of my hardness pressed against him.

"Come on, I can't be the only one to be undressed!" Elphias' hands dropped to my sweater and I leaned into the touch, gasping as his hands slid under the soft fabric and heated skin met heated skin. Moaning softly, I ground my hips against him, his own hips bucking urgently against mine. I smiled and let him pull the sweater over my head. I blew strands of errant hair out of my face and his hands slid back into my hair. I gasped when his lips touched mine tentatively and twined my fingers into his wispy hair, so close I could see the golden flecks in his hazel eyes.

I coaxed him upright and gently pressed my body against him. My other hand wrapped itself around his thin waist. I rocked my hips and he arched against me again, and we ground against each other slowly. Quiet, breathless sounds escaped us, mixed with the occasional sharp cry or moan. Soon enough I gasped and released his lips to pant helplessly, mouthing his sternum in blind want. Elphias' fingers fisted in my hair again and every little pull sent jolts of pleasure through me. We pressed harder to each other and it seemed for a small moment that we could do this forever. Suddenly, Elphias moaned raggedly and clutched me frantically to him and that little sound sent me over the edge, and I came harder than I had ever done alone.

For a while we were still and pleasant little flickers of spent desire washed over us. Nuzzling his chest, I dozed for a while and his fingers threading gently through my tangled hair. Then he giggled softly, and I jolted awake, caught by surprise. I looked up at his twinkling eyes and his gentle smile and smiled back at him. Gently, he tugged on my hair until our lips met again....


	3. Burning Day

**The Burning Day**

--Albus--

Our Grand Prix, finally freedom at last! For six years (and for me much longer than that) yearning to travel the world, meeting wizards and witches from other cultures and absorbing what they had to teach us. We were ensconced in the top room of the Recluse and tomorrow we would be leaving for Rome. Everyone said that I would become the greatest wizard of the age, and I was desperate to live up to the expectation.

My mind is abruptly derailed from this train of thought when nails dig into my thighs. Elphias was looking at me with darkened eyes. I'd paused and he pulled me more insistently to him. I pressed him against the mattress and pushed deeper into his heat, suppressing a groan against his moist neck. His familiar hands were in my hair and he pressed his lips to mine. Our tongues slid against each other briefly before I had to break away, a cry escaping me as his fingers grazed an erogenous zone with the lightest of touches.

"Rome" he breathed against my lips, his hips meeting mine in a frantic rhythm.

"Yes, and then P...Paris.." my voice was thick with desire, desperate hope, and with everything I was going to escape. From far away, I could hear a faint rapping sound, but I was lost in Elphias and put it out of my mind. Slowly, it crawled into my consciousness and into the pleasure and the tightness and heat and I paused, listening. Elphias groaned his frustration at my pause as I looked around the room. It did not take me long to locate the sound, an unfamiliar owl at the closed window, doubtless carrying a message.

I reluctantly untangled myself from Elphias with a soft groan and reached for my glasses. Grumbling under my breath at the intrusion, I sighed and pulled the rumpled white sheet from the floor and wrapped myself with it. I opened the window with more force than was needed and untied the letter from the owl's leg, causing it to hoot indignantly. I unfolded it irritably, almost ripping the official, too pristine paper to get at the message, throwing the envelope to the floor in my haste.

Elphias had crept up behind me and his arms encircled my torso, his lips pressed against my neck in just the right way. "What is it?"

It was a summons from the Ministry of Magic to return to Godric's Hollow. For a moment, I could only sit back upon the bed and stare at it, mouth agape. My mother had died suddenly, and though it did not give the details, I knew it was because of my sister. The Ministry advised I return posthaste to settle the contents of my mother's will and make the decision of custody of my younger brother and sister. I had dreaded this since the first day I had started at Hogwarts and I had known it wasn't a matter of _if, _but a matter of _when_._This couldn't be happening. Not __**now, **__please not now_...I thought desperately. _I am so close to freedom!_

I didn't feel anything for a moment. I read the words on the paper until my eyes swam, hoping that there was some mistake, some error, and that this bit of freedom that I'd tasted hadn't been ripped away from me in one moment. Elphias was reading over my shoulder, though he needn't have done, and made a distressed sound, hugging me tightly. It was like glass had shattered in my heart and the tiny splinters lodged in all the tender spots. My cry was the sum of all the years of secrecy, of shame, anger and the injustice of the world. I couldn't see any more, my vision blurred by tears slid down my cheeps and dripped from the scrabbling bit of beard I had cultivated and caught in my eyelashes. It smeared the ink of the letter and I cast it to the floor to join the envelope.

Elphias held me close, and murmured something that I could not make out, a meaningless platitude. I was suddenly filled with white hot anger and pulled away from his embrace savagely. I rose and almost tripped upon the tangled sheets wrapping my body as I moved back to the window. Of course they would be wanting a response. I drove my hands hard against the wall next to the window, causing the owl that still sat upon it to hoot as it was startled by the glass trembling in the windowpane it sat on.

I turned back to Elphias, who sat on the edge of the bed, sightlessly looking at the floor. I felt panic surge through me, what would happen to us? I had grown fond of Elphias and did not want to lose him to this. I growled and he flinched slightly as I grabbed my wand from next to where he sat, discarded in our earlier pleasures. I cast a hasty packing spell, my belongings flinging themselves into my trunk haphazardly. I looked to him and at his solemn nod I packed his belongings too, still to angry to be careful.

--Elphias--

I looked at the floor, too aware of Albus' anger and frustration and grief and trying very hard not to let it affect me. I needed to be strong for him, if we were to survive this together. I was still as he packed our belongings until the last clatter of quills and swoosh of clothing died down. I then gathered all the courage I had and followed him to where he stood by the window. His eyes lacked their sparkle and were reddened from tears, though none fell now. I was a little afraid to touch him for fear of retaliation, and held my breath as I took his wand and drew it down, prying it out of his fingers and tossing it aside.

"It's late...This can wait till morning." I did not want to leave tonight, it was late, and what would happen tomorrow would be inevitable. Albus' hand trembled, and for a moment I thought that he might snatch it back from me. Instead he took a shaky breath and turned towards me and I drew him closer to the bed and he followed blindly. One more night before the fall, was all I wanted. Just one more night.

--Albus--

I awoke with a start, blinking into the bright sunlight. Elphias was asleep beside me still, sleeping much deeper than I, and I affectionately ran my fingers through his messy, chocolate brown hair. Last night seemed like a distant nightmare and the light from the early summer sun felt nice. I made the mistake of looking around the room too soon, and my hopes that it was just a nightmare were dashed. The owl from last night was still sitting on the window, the nerve of it! It was sleeping now, and its feathery grey breast rising and falling almost imperceptibly.

I gritted my teeth and made to rise, the sheet clinging to my slightly sweaty thighs, made warm by the sun and the night's exertions. Elphias stirred and rubbed his eyes, shivering in the absence of the sheet. Wrapping the sheet around myself, I dug in the chaotic mess of my trunk and regretted the hasty packing I'd done in my anger the night before. I pushed around quills, ink bottles, crumpled parchment, and various pieces of clothing in all states of cleanliness until I found a beautiful purple dress robe. It had been a gift from Elphias for my 16th birthday last summer. My fingers caressed the velvet and I blinked back tears, trying to steady my breath, determined not to cry again.

Elphias' hands lightly touched my shoulders and I could not suppress the sob that shook me. The grief seemed much more fresh now than it had last night and the initial shock of it faded to let in the deluge. _My mother...gone. Everything she had hoped for...gone, _I thought. I didn't want to go home, I didn't want to see that it was real. I knelt there on my knees for a long time wondering between the aching in my throat and the sting in my eyes how I would ever have the courage to face this.

Elphias was writing something quick onto a piece of parchment and affixed it to that bloody owl that had ruined everything, casting it out of the window with more force than I thought him capable of. He turned back to me and held my glasses in his small fingers then pressed them gently onto my too straight nose. I stared at him over them, unable to stem the trail of tears that dried in salty trails on my cheeks. With him I would make it, somehow. My legs ached when I scrambled up to pull the soft dress robe over my head. Elphias' fingers were in my hair, smoothing it away from my face after it had been rumpled by the robe. This was what I enjoyed most about Elphias, these times of companionable silence, when he knew everything and gave his support silently.

He dressed in a dark brown dress robe made from the same velvet. It was much more conservative than mine and it was tailored to him perfectly. Unlike me, he also pulled on trousers, aware of my stare. Frowning, I willed my libido under control, somewhat successfully, frustrated that even grief could not quite quiet this monster of desire. I looked at his slender back and arse longingly as he bent to grab his own trunk, charming it to fit in the palm of his hand and doing the same to mine. With a smile that did not reach his eyes, he tossed the other to me and the silence stretched between us for a moment before I sighed. _Now or never._

"Let's go...the room?"

"Taken care of while you slept" I nodded and held out my hand, and we disappeared.


	4. Funeral Bells

**Funeral Bells**

--Elphias--

I could only watch awkwardly as Albus approached her coffin, which was closed for propriety's sake . I understood there was a gruesome accident, and I could catch the details of it from the minds around me: Aberforth was looking steadfastly at the floor, fire and splintered wood on his mind. Bathilda Bagshot, bless her soul, was thinking of fire also, of water and something I did not quite catch, a flash of golden hair and a handsome face. The glaring absence of the sister I knew they had told me the most about the situation however. I had known about her for as long as I'd known Albus.

I watched as Albus stumbled through an awkward eulogy, choking back tears at the end, shocked by the sympathy and suspiciousness of those closest to me. I grit my teeth, for they did not know the hardness of what would happen now. Albus was not close to his mother, but that did not mean he hadn't **loved** her.

Albus was standing at her coffin again, those around us wandering around aimlessly. His face was hardened and tearless as I approached him now. The hard set of his shoulders told me he was listening to those around him talk amongst themselves in shushed whispers and occasional awkward barks of laughter. I paused on my way, his mind curiously closed to me. The thought flitted across my mind to convince him to leave, to forget all of this...but in that moment I knew it was impossible.

"You have to go now." Albus hung his head and his unbound auburn hair fell into his face. I could feel his anguish, longing, and loneliness through the cracks in his mental walls.

"Albus...I can stay with you! The world tour can wait. We can work through this together..." His shoulders shook with suppressed sobs and I reached out to touch his shoulder, but he turned away from me.

"No. You have to leave for good. I can't tether you to me," Albus gesticulated wildly to the crowd, "To **this!** We can't be together any more!We might not even be able to be friends! This is forever Elphias and I can't leave. Not ever now." The crowd had hushed at his outburst, and watched with a mix of shock and morbid curiosity.

"But...we could..." I could barely choke out the words. He was pushing me away and I hadn't expected this.

"**NO!** Leave! There is nothing for you here now! Go on your tour! See the world and forget me!"

I was going to protest, but he looked me in the eyes then, and in that instant I felt the true extent of his pain and it took my breath away. Then I felt him push my mind away forcefully, like a door slamming in my face, the exclusion so forceful that I physically staggered back. I could only stare in disbelief. I could hear **nothing** from him. Even though I was the one to have taught him Occulmency, he had always kept his mind open around me, knowing that it comforted me and facilitated an intimate closeness between us. This...I looked around and realized that the remaining well-wishers had paused entirely, waiting for my reaction. I had to leave. For him, for his pride, for his reputation I had to step down. _I will be back_, I thought to myself as I let my hands drop to my sides and ran out of the chapel. A broken wail trailed on my heels like a rabid dog as I disappeared.


	5. Gib Mir Die Nacht

**Gib Mir Die Nacht**

--Gellert--

The Headmaster stared at me with disgust in his eyes. His son, _the traitor, _stood beside him with a snide smile. He was playing the innocent victim of course. _It was for his own good after all_, I did not see him complaining when he arched against me, begging for more. He did not have a problem when I was reduced to being his whore for the sake of my research. I was only attempting to heighten his pleasure, but he had to go and _ruin_ it. _I had to Crucio him to shut him up! It was self defense, I swear! _

I said nothing of these thoughts, boxed in by my father and the Headmaster. My father, Friedrich Grindelwald was a tall, stout man, and might have been attractive before he had learned to frown and criticize everything in his path. I _hated_ him. He was the sum of everything that I did not want to be, restrictive, angry, and unable to change.

Presently, father was screaming about fairness and cruelty and permissiveness to the Headmaster. _No, he was not defending me, _I thought, _more like his precious rein-blut reputation._ _Pfüh_. I did not regret what I had done, not one bit. The Headmaster, a smarmy sort of man with dark hair and a waxed mustache, was standing toe to toe with my father now and I watched them with only the barest interest. My eyes flickered to his son and I leered suggestively at him to watch him grit his teeth and squirm uncomfortably. I wanted them to be done with it. _Expel me! Let me escape from this hole of a school!_ _I don't need you! It is your fault for not recognizing my brilliance! _I thought savagely, sneering at the other boy.

There was a sharp sound and I flinched. The Headmaster's hands had come down on the surface of the desk with a resounding crash on either side of where I sat. I felt a pleasurable jolt of fear thrill through me and smirked up at him. Suddenly his finger was a scarce distance from my nose and he was screaming "_LOS LOS_!" A sharp tug on the collar of my school robes caused me to choke and stumble upright as I was dragged out of the office by my father.

As we cleared the gate, I turned back and my father allowed me pause, thinking I'd had a change of heart about what I'd done. Until he saw the sign of the Deathly Hallows carved upon the stone archway, a sign that I'd carved painstakingly into everything I owned in some way. He snarled and yanked me back, and bound my wrists behind me in his massive hands as we apparated away.

We reappeared just outside our cottage in the Bavarian Alps. This was merely our summer home, just a cottage. Our mansion, down in one of the vast valleys, was where we spent our winters. My father kicked at my heels at my leisurely pace up the stairs, and I went slower just to anger him further. My mother was waiting for us, her usually attractive face was hardened in disapproval at my presence. School would not be out for another week and she knew it. I smiled at her hopefully and she pressed her lips into a stern line and turned away from me to return to the kitchen. _Oh. That __is__ not good at all..._

My father's hands were at my collar, dragging me to the stout, wooden kitchen table and pushing me roughly against it as he screamed at me. His tirade was unending; my ungratefulness, my supposed shame upon our family, how I would never be a proper wizard, how I needed to grow up and be a man...and on and on. I wasn't listening and he knew it well, which just succeeded in infuriating him more.

He shoved me hard against the wall and I felt the sting of purposefully roughened ropes as they circled my wrists and ankles, knotting far above my head in the wooden rafters. The ropes suspended me higher and higher until my toes barely touched the ground. I pressed my cheek to the cool wooden paneling and braced myself. I did not need to hear the metallic cling of his belt to know what was coming--it had come enough times in my life for me to know that submitting to it was ultimately better than fighting.

I steadied my breath as I felt the burning tear of my robes as they were destroyed at the seams, the shreds sliding off like hundreds of snakes. The faint whoosh of the belt and then the stinging crack as it hit my skin jolted me back to reality. I bit my lip to keep from crying out, damned if I would give him the pleasure. The cracks rained down upon me, and he was still screaming of how I had disappointed him, how I would forever be a disgrace to him in the scant moments between the brutal blows.

I could feel welts rise on my skin and the heat of them seeped through me, almost comforting. Each lash sent pleasurable sensations throughout my body and I could not help my hardness, thankfully pressed against the wall where my father could not see. The belt hit me so hard it rocked my body where it was bound, soon enough the wet sound of blood joined the sound of the belt as the blows struck me ever harder. The pain and pleasure twined so tightly inside of me that I couldn't decide which was worse; the relentless pain of the lash or my pent up desire.

I did not have to wait long until I heard my mother screaming for my father to stop. A violent thunk and jingle rang through the room and I felt the belt land around my feet. I panted helplessly against the wood, pleased that I had not uttered a sound. I could hear stomping up the stairs as my father retreated, doors slamming and shaking the foundations. My mother's voice was soft as she called back the ropes, though she was unable to stop my fall to the floor.

I landed with a soft grunt, the fight suddenly gone from me. The jarring movement had coaxed alive the lacerations and pushed away whatever pleasure I had taken in it and I moaned in pain. Mother was at my side, speaking softly to me, though I was too focused on my own misery to really listen. The smell of blood caused me to swallow bile over and over. I was glad when my mother opened a jar of Dittany balm, the piny smell overpowering the scent. The balm tingled as she applied it, and I hissed in pain occasionally. I could see the flicker of red light as she closed some of the deeper wounds with her wand, and I worried that some of them would heal badly and scar. I sighed quietly and my mother said something stern. It could not be helped, I would not change for _him._

I could hear commotion upstairs even now, my father's deep, indistinct voice as he argued with someone, presumably over Floo connection. I tensed and my mother lay a comforting hand on my shoulder, thinking I was in pain. But I couldn't think of the pain when I knew what he was doing and I feared it more than the pain—I was going to be sent away. Father knew _exactly_ what punishment would hurt me the most, to be forced to leave my beloved Bavaria, the summer house and the winter house, and be tossed somewhere where nobody knew me.

Nobody understood me, not really. It was not the lack of social interaction I feared in being sent away, but the inability to wander without fear. I took comfort in the trees and mountains and wilderness that would tell my secrets to no one. I did not want to go to a place where I would live in constant stress of someone eavesdropping on my plans. I was going to change the _world_, but I was not ready to say it yet. The one person I'd told _betrayed_ me, and I was not eager to repeat my folly.

The argument between my father and whomever he was speaking died down and his head appeared from the top of the stairs. "You are to be sent to your Great Aunt. She is the only person that would deign to take _you_. Your things have been sent ahead of you by Durmstrang." I sat there on the kitchen floor, still naked and trying not to cry. I would not cry...but the desire not to leave here welled up in me and I bit my lip to stay the tears, though my shoulders hitched with the effort. I clenched my teeth and fists and sat there fighting it as my parents looked on in silence. But I couldn't suppress a whimper when a plain black robe was dropped onto my lap. "_Bitte...._"

My father laughed then, not a happy sound, but one of pure _schadenfreude, _a bitter, haughty sound. I pulled on the robes and winced at the tender spots that would take time to heal properly, the rough fabric chafing them with every movement. I scratched unconsciously at it, used to much finer fabric. My father sneered at me and threw something into my lap. The belt immediately glowed blue and I cried out and tried to let go of it as I was taken away.

The lurch of a portkey caused what little I'd eaten to burn my throat as I emerged on a wood floor. I coughed and tried not to choke up the remains of lunch. The shock and finality of it all caused me to shudder and sob brokenly. The fine, silky blue edge of a petticoat appeared near my fingertips, complete with a fine lace filigree and the tips of dainty slippers of the same colour.

I looked up into the face of a middle aged woman with fine features like all of the Grindelwald family. She was somewhat past her prime, but she would have been beautiful in her youth. Her dark hair circled her face in a wild tumble of curls and she smiled at me, brown eyes twinkling ever so slightly. I retreated to a sitting position and stared up at her, wiping tears from my eyes with the rough edge of my robes. I had never met her. I'd expected a close relative or someone familiar, perhaps far away from Bavaria...not _this. _

And then she spoke to me in _Englisch_ and I winced. _Scheiße. __An Englishwoman, certainly._ _My father had planned this out very well indeed. _I could speak English, but not well. I would know nobody here which would further isolate me. I clenched my teeth and tried to smile at this woman who would be taking care of me for the next few months at least. You see, I'm not of age yet, just a scant 4 months away from the freedom of manhood. And so I was stuck here in this unfamiliar place, with a person that spoke a language I barely understood.

"Gellert! Please stand! You need not kneel in front of me! Though I admit it is rather flattering! I'm Ms. Bagshot, and I'm your great-aunt. I will be your guardian for the next few months," Frau Bagshot chuckled at herself and her eyes flashed in a strange way. I scrambled to my feet, feeling awkward and at that moment very lonely. I was too sullen to look her in the eyes, so I looked at my feet and winced to remember they were bare.

"_Sprechen Sie Englisch?_" She said gently, and I startled, looking her in the eyes for the first time.

I shuffled my feet awkwardly, still avoiding her eyes, "_Ja, aber...nur ein bisschen._" I whispered. Truly, I knew more than a little, but I felt more comfortable with my own language and I clung to it like a baby's blanket.

"I understand that you don't want to speak English, but you will have to learn sometime my dear. Come, I will show you to your room."

I followed the blue mass of fabric that was her dress up the twisting stairs to a small room across the hall from an office that looked like a small library had exploded inside it. I assumed that room was her study, though I did not yet know what she did for a living. _Bagshot_...it sounded familiar and I couldn't quite place it. I filed the thought away in my mind as something to peruse later. Surely I would have plenty of time to contemplate such mysteries as why an apparently unmarried woman kept an office like that.

The room was spartan but livable. However, it was clear that this room had not been aired in some time. Inside was a nice four poster bed with the same cobalt blue drapery as Frau Bagshot's dress. The hangings and bedding were clean, if a bit dusty. There was even a small desk in the corner with a fresh candle upon it. My trunk sat by the window, in the corner of the room. It looked a bit scuffed but no worse for the trip.

"I did not have time to make it proper yet for you, so if you'll excuse me..." With a flick of her wand, the dust whooshed off of the varied surfaces of the room and curled in thick clouds out of the open window. Beyond it, I glimpsed a small _dorf_, no more than a collection of houses and a few tiny shops. Somewhere far off, I could hear the bells of a church chiming the hour.

The last of the dust floated in whirls by me as Frau Bagshot surveyed her handiwork. Then she flicked her wand and handed me a heavy bag of money.

"For you to buy whatever it is that young boys need to buy."

I sputtered, hefting the bag incredulously, for it was more money than I'd ever been allowed to have. Sure, my parents were quite well off, rich even. But my sister and I were never given our own money to spend; we were taken places to have clothing bought, our school supplies and books bought for us. I looked up at her for confirmation and she merely smiled at me. Then she bustled past me and back down the stairs to leave me bewildered in the doorway.

I tossed the bag of coins onto my bed then flopped onto the bed myself, noting with satisfaction that my back was healed enough not to cause me too much pain. I wondered what I would be able to buy in a tiny place like this. _Not much, _I thought. I looked up at the bright blue of the fabric above me, tiny stars twinkling in the charmed fabric and drifted off to sleep.

When I woke again, it was night and I sat up with a jolt of panic. Unfamiliar sights greeted me as I stared around the grayed, darkened room. The panic passed quickly enough as the events of the previous day came back to me in a rush. I buried my head in the pillows, groaning softly. _What is the point of getting up? _ My stomach answered that by growling loudly. I frowned, trying to piece together when I had eaten last. I couldn't remember, though I guessed it had been the morning before I was expelled. I sat on the edge of the bed, head in my hands, trying to clear the fuzz in my brain.

Instinctively I uttered, "_Leicht_" Which was followed by panic when I realized I was wandless. I remembered then that my wand was taken from me during the chaos following my expulsion. _My home, my language, AND my magic?_ The indignity was almost too much for me and.

I heard the shuffle of slippered feet on the wood floors in response to my anguished cry, and Frau Bagshot appeared in my open doorway. I ducked my face into my curls and stared at my knees, determined not to show her the tears that slid silently from my eyes. She approached me quietly and set a covered tray down on the wooden table by the bed. I looked up sightlessly at her, my vision blurred.

"I know you are lonely, but you should eat." She said softly, and I thought I heard a note of sympathy in her voice.

I was seized briefly by the desire to throw myself into her arms as if she were my mother and sob myself to sleep. _It is not okay._ _And I'm not hungry_. I thought stubbornly. I realized the room was still aglow, though Frau Bagshot had already left it. Wrinkling my nose in confusion I turned my attention the covered tray and beyond that, the source of the glow. Sticking from a spray of fresh flowers was my wand, in among the roses and petunias. I snatched at it like a man starved, almost knocking the vase over in my enthusiasm. I hugged it to me like a child's toy, feeling the tingle of magic in my fingers. I did not spare a thought of how she had obtained it, only that it was **mine** again and I had _magic_ and everything was right with the world.

My stomach chose that moment to remind me loudly why the tray was there and I pulled the silver dome off, setting it aside and staring at the contents. _Sandwiches?_ I eyed the delicate looking little bits of food with some trepidation. On cue, Frau Bagshot appeared in the room again, beaming and carrying another covered platter of food in her right hand and a robe draped across her left arm. I could smell meat in whatever she was carrying and my stomach had her attention.

"I see you found my gift," She said, setting the robes on my bed and conjuring another table with her wand to set the tray down upon it. I flushed with embarrassment and clutched my wand again. "Oh don't give me that look! I won't take it from you. It was hard to get my hands upon though..."

A quiet _danke_ was all I could manage in reply. Distracted, she removed lid of the tray and handing me a pristine linen napkin.

"Tuck in!" And before I could say anything more she was gone again.

Shaking my head, I turned back to my food. One of the dishes had meat and mashed potatoes in it, with bits of vegetable in and I found it to be delicious. I had to commend her on this at least, she really was a great cook. I ate most of what was served with the dish, cheese and bread and a glass of grape juice. I avoided the pretty little sandwiches on the other tray, not quite convinced they were meant to be eaten. Sated, I curled back up on the bed, pleasantly sleepy and content for the first time in a while, falling asleep again while clutching my wand close to my heart.


	6. The Setup

**Author's notes:** I'm so so sorry it took this long to get another chapter up! Both of my computers decided to die within a week of each other, so I didn't have the files for most of the summer. Updates will come faster now that I have them running again. It has NOT been abandoned by any means, and the story itself is written to the end, it just needs editing. Thank you everyone for your kind words and encouragement!

Platypus Albus is not seme for long, but Gellert isn't as dominant as you might think either. You'll see :) I might take up your offer on a beta, will give it some thought.

**The Setup**

--Gellert--

I awoke to sun in my eyes and groaned, pulling a pillow over my face. It was still chilly in the room, and I burrowed in the covers....covers? I blinked awake reluctantly and blushed, realizing that not only was I completely nude, but tucked into the bed as if I were a small boy. I groaned,_I__t is going to be a loooong summer._ The embarrassment passed quickly enough as I snuggled myself further into the soft bedding. My body had other plans for me and I hissed softly, the friction of the sheets just enough to tease my hard cock.

I eyed the open door and beyond that the closed office beyond and listened. All was still. My fingers encircled my hardness and I bit back a groan. I was aware of the open door, but I was too comfortable to bother with closing it. My wand had been placed on the bedside table, out of my immediate reach. My hand slid quickly over my hardened flesh, pausing to trace the vein underneath, tease the sensitive tip with the flicker of fingers before settling into a hard, desperate rhythm.

My mind drifted to the sweet boy that had betrayed me, my grip hard. I remembered his tightness, sweaty nights under heavy blankets in cold rooms, pressing him to the mattress, so deep he could taste me. _And oh, his mouth, the little bastard could suck like no other_, and that thought brought me over the edge with a soft grunt of pleasure. My hot seed stuck to my fingers and I slid it along my hardness until I was spent and panting against the sheets.

I lay for a moment, eyes closed, before grabbing my wand and muttering "_Scorgify_". I sat up languorously, leaning against the wooden headboard of the bed. I frowned, this would not do at all.

_Where was I going to find a pretty boy __**here**__?_ I shuddered at the thought of some of the surely ugly English boys in this town. My thought was interrupted by the swoosh and scuffle of slippers and petticoats that preceded the appearance of Frau Bagshot. I tried to make myself presentable as was possible, suddenly quite embarrassed at my nudity, as covered as it was.

She was carrying another platter, and a part of me dreaded what might be under it. She set it on my lap and swished out of the room as quickly as she'd come and I frowned behind her until I saw her duck into the office across the way. She arranged her skirts with a soft floof and sat down, quill in hand, already distracted._ Maybe this would not be so bad after all._ I ate my breakfast in silence, every once in a while my eyes flickering to the back of Frau Bagshot, wondering.

I stretched and set my tray on the empty table, waving my wand at the door to close it with a soft click. Letting the sheet slide from my middle I stood nude, and stretched my arms above me to grasp the stout wooden frame of the bed, arching my back and shoulders. My eyes fell on the fine, dark fabric of robes, draped over the end of my bed. I fingered the fabric and it was buttery soft and dark blue, the colour of what I suspected most of Frau Bagshot's possessions were. I held it up and it was clear the robes were new, the cut of the fabric nicely conservative.

Pulling the soft fabric over my head, ruffling my already tangled, curly hair in the process, I smoothed it down my body. _A perfect fit...when? Ah. _I squirmed inwardly at the thought of her measuring me in my sleep and pushed it hurriedly out of my mind. Casting my eyes around the room, I saw shiny black leather shoes by the doorway and slipped them on, finding them also perfectly tailored to me.

Peeking my head around the door, satisfactorily dressed, Frau Bagshot called to me, "Are you dressed? We will have a visitor for tea, and I want to introduce you. He is a lovely boy from down the street, and quite in need of a boy his own age I think..." She trailed off, scribbling on the parchment in front of her.

I took the liberty to look around the room, plastered from wall to ceiling with newspaper and magazine clippings, little pictures (some that moved and some that didn't). And books, so many books that it was quite surprising that she could even fit in the room. Books on the shelves, haphazardly piled in the corners, on her desk, open or marked or scribbled in, dark red ink marring the pages of some. I realized suddenly they were all copies and revisions and proofs the **same** book: A History of Magic. _Oh. __**This**__ Bagshot. We had this book to study at Durmstrang! _

Intimidated the slightest bit, I retreated from the doorway of her office and wandered downstairs. I wondered about this boy that was going to come for their "Tea" and wondered if tea itself was anything like _Kaffee and Kuchen _back home.

I was mildly surprised when I came to a vast library, surely magically enhanced, for there were so many books here that it put my own family's formidable collection to shame. I could spend the rest of my life here and perhaps not read everything that was amassed here. Unlike her office, the books here were meticulously filed and detailed and arranged in perfect rows, and each shelf had a small bronze marker with numbers and letters. There was a wooden filing cabinet near the middle of the room that I assumed contained information about the books stored here.

I bypassed it as I wandered among the rows and rows of books, past plush leather couches and chairs, intricate candelabra and spindly tables. I picked a book off a shelf at random, "Wizardry, a Gruesome History" and paged through it, not really looking at the pages, before replacing it with a soft huff. I wandered to the centre file slowly, running my hands across the supple leather of a couch idly. To my delight the cards were all in order of subject, and I realized as I looked around the room that each book had a number on the binding that corresponded with the bronze markers.

Out of habit I looked first for "Hallows, Deathly", but found nothing, so I looked for the "Tales of Beetle the Bard"and found a match! I took the card and wandered along the shelves, absorbing the numbering scheme, finally coming to the desired shelf, climbing up the ladder and plucking the book from its resting place. I jumped down and flopped down into one of the soft chairs.

_This....it couldn't be..._I flipped through it carefully, realizing all of the stories were hand-written and the text was written in runes. All of the intricate illustrations were inked directly onto the pages. Trying to quell my excitement, I flipped to the desired page and was greeted by a beautiful illustration of three skulls and the sign of the Hallows between them. I was unable to read runes, but that could not contain my excitement at this find, I could learn to read runes later. My fingers lightly traced the ink and its slight imprint gave me goosebumps. _Could this be the original copy?_

Time passed in this way with me shuffling back and forth between my warm chair and the shelves, until I had amassed a pile of books on either table beside me. This would not be bad at all. I was not aware of the time passing until the doorbell rang. I heard a hurried shuffle as Frau Bagshot answered it. I turned back to my book, it was probably that boy anyway, and I did not want to bother with him. I heard a soft male voice and Frau Bagshot speaking with him not much later. Cringing, I made myself scarce, slipping away through the kitchen door.

--Albus--

Ms. Bagshot greeted me with her usual cheeriness and escorted me into the drawing room with a bit more energy than her normal bustling. I narrowed my eyes slightly and looked around suspiciously. It seemed like she was much more willing to please than usual, offering me tea and sweets and then swishing from the room without another word. I was used to her eccentricity, just shaking my head at her forgetfulness, a half smile on my face.

I came here most days, seeking solace. I was tired of babysitting my mad sister, who did not listen to me and whom I could barely control, and my (equally mad in my opinion) brother who ignored and resented my presence. I might as well not be there. I gave up my own life to take care of them, and resentment burned through me with every day that passed. I could be doing my own thing, somewhere that was not **here** in this tiny backwater town.

_I could have seen the world_....I thought, and swallowed the lump in my throat. _No use dwelling on my loneliness, there will surely be more of it. I wish I had my mother's strength._

Sighing I sat in the drawing room in my usual chair, curling into it with the book Ms. Bagshot had recommended to me, a Muggle book, but interesting nevertheless, "The Portrait of Dorian Grey". I did not know if she meant something by it or not, the gesture seemed innocent enough.

I settled to read, but the sound of raised voices distracted me. Trying to ignore it, I focused on the words on the page, but the voices became more and more irate with each passing moment. _Ms. Bagshot and...whom?_ The younger, male voice was unfamiliar and thickly accented. A burst of guttural words sprung from the male, but I was too far away to really make out what they were saying, or what language they spoke. Ms. Bagshot's angry voice replied in the same language and I set down the book. I had never heard her raise her voice, much less known that she spoke anything but proper English. I winced when I heard a sharp slap and an indignant cry from the male, followed by more of that unfamiliar language.

I quickly buried my face in the book and pretended to read when I heard footsteps towards the drawing room. I did not want to intrude on whatever personal quarrel they were having. So focused I was on pretending to read, that I was startled when I looked up. The youth had crept up to my chair and watched me silently. He was handsome, perhaps a year or two younger than I. Curly, blonde hair framed his round face, long enough to fall into his eyes, but coiled above his slight shoulders. His wide eyes were a curious shade of brown so light it was almost yellow, and they met my cobalt ones with no hesitation. A streak of red marred his left cheek, where I presumed Ms. Bagshot had stuck him, though it was already fading.

A small flush darkened his slightly tanned cheeks, and he smiled at me. _Oh. Merlin, he is going to break my heart, and I have just laid eyes on him!_ I thought to myself.

"H...Hallo..." I suspected by the teasing sparkle in his eyes that he was playing with me.

"Hello..." I stood, feeling awkward when I realized I was at least 10cm taller than he, blushing brightly. "I'm Albus Dumbledore, what's your name?" I offered my hand and he shook it firmly.

"Gellert Grindelwald," he said, bowing and grinning mischievously at me. I shifted from foot to foot uneasily.

"Pleased to meet you."

"The pleasure is mine."Gellert stepped close to me, much closer than was really polite. His head was tilted ever so slightly, and though his face was carefully schooled into neutrality, it didn't reach his sparkling eyes. I stepped back unconsciously and his hands alighted on my shoulders and I tensed, expecting a violent action to follow.

"_Nein nein,_ do not worry..." he said, grinning at me. I stepped back deliberately, and he stumbled forward as I broke our contact.

To my surprise he was frowning, looking rather put off by my reaction to him. I learned quickly that I could never expect the expected reaction from him when I found my back against the wall. Gellert's arms caged me on either side, though our height difference forced him to arch onto his toes to come eye to eye with me. A hysteric giggle bubbled up from me, though I pressed my lips together in an effort to sustain it. His eyes flashed for a moment and he pressed his body against mine, lips ghosting mine for the barest second.

_Oh._ _He is not trying to intimidate me after all. _ He pulled away slightly, testing my reaction to his rather spur of the moment action. His hands remained at either side of me, though I could see the long fingers twitch with the effort of stillness. I flushed red and he must have found it endearing, because he kissed me lightly on each cheek. I squirmed against him, feeling his hardness against my thigh.

I gathered the courage to lift my hands to his chest, intending to gently push him away. Instead I slid them against the soft fabric of his robe and my fingers caught on cold steel at his neck. Surprised, I looked at the clasp, a curious symbol etched harshly into the metal. The symbol scratched at my brain in its familiarity, yet I could not place it.

"You are interested in the Hallows also?" Gellert's face was guarded, his lips bowed into the smallest of frowns. I tried unsuccessfully not to scoff, looking at him with mock seriousness, given our current position.

"It's just a story isn't it?"

"It's real." Gellert looked unaffected by my obvious skepticism.


	7. Making Out With Destiny

**Author's Note: Ok, ok sorry this took so long AGAIN, but life ate me! Thank you for all the kind comments and support so far! You'll all be happy to know that instead of doing Nanowrimo this year again (since I lost nearly 10 days due to irl things), I will be editing the crap out of Off White Magic, with the intention of getting it fully edited by the end of November. :D And now sit back and enjoy chapter 7, which is a long one this time! **

**Making Out With Destiny**

"Prove it to me." A part of me screamed that I was an idiot for letting him and I pushed it back into the dark, dusty corners of my mind. I wasn't surprised when Gellert beamed at me, releasing me and pulling at my hands. I allowed him to lead me to Bagshot's library, the tips of my fingers tingling from the contact. He gestured to the rather substantial pile of books on one table with a grin.

"It's possible, I have proofs!" Gellert handed me one book in particular. By its age it appeared to be the original copy of "Tales of Beetle the Bard". I blinked at it, running my thumbs gently over the worn leather, unsure what this could prove, as amazing as it was.

I heard Gellert sit on the leather sofa, and his hands tugged on the hem of my robes.

Gellert looked at me expectantly from his seat, "Are you going to sit _mit mir_?" He shook his head at the slip of language and pulled at my elbow gently until I sat beside him, making me painfully aware of his closeness.

_This is silly, it's only a children's book. Albeit the original copy. Why am I so desperate to believe a child's tale? _I thought as I sat there beside him. _Because you want to be free of your family, _ I thought bitterly. Out of the corner of my eye I saw him flick his wand, and another book appeared with the others.

"I have _other_ proofs" He said simply, levitating the book over to me, a fine trail of dust catching the afternoon sunlight streaming in from the large windows.

This was not a book as I had first thought, it was a journal. The leather was cracked and flaking in places, and I supposed it was coloured red once, though now it was some indistinct shade of brown. I opened it and frowned, finding the language written in faded brown ink to not be English. Gellert was leaning over my shoulder, his warm breath doing rather interesting things to my concentration as it caressed my neck.

"It is in _Plattdeutsch_" He spoke slowly now, his accent more pronounced now as his fingers brushed mine to open the journal, pointing out a carefully marked page.

"The date is 1850, not so long ago! It reads: "'I lost it in the night, stolen from my room, my sleep disturbed by a curse as he left. Foolishly I was not carrying another wand, and luckily he did not deign to kill me for it, as it has passed most often from hand to hand.'"

He turned about five pages and then translated again, "'I know who stole it. He has the arrogance to even advertise the fact! Gregorovich doesn't dare name it for what it is, but those looking will know it for sure. He claims to be reproducing its power in his wands, as if he could reproduce a _legend_. I will have my wand back, now that I know him.'" I turned the page curiously, but I need not have, as this was the last entry. The remaining pages were ominously blank.

I frowned and Gellert tapped his wand on the pages idly, "I checked for invisible ink or spells, but I found nothing. Death records show a death around this time in the city that Gregorovich has his shop, across the _straße..._"

"_Straße?_"

"...Street...my _Englisch_ is not so good."

"It doesn't name the wand..."

"There can not be a doubt can there? What **other **wand could it be?"

I frowned, still unconvinced, but the idea was already swirling about my head. "There were three Hallows."

"The others! _Ja, _there is a story in one of these," he gestured to the pile of books, "that refers to a man that resurrected his wife..."

"Really?"

"_Ja,_ it is a very sad story."

"The cloak?"

Gellert frowned, squinting into the summer sunlight, "Passed down from father to son, if the legend is truth."

"But that means it could be anywhere...." My train of thought was interrupted by hot breath on the bit of neck that my long hair exposed. Gellert's arm was a hot weight against my back and I wondered when he had gotten so very close to me. He was still leaning forward, open palm resting possessively upon the small of my back. My own breath quickened again, the journal forgotten. Gellert nuzzled my earlobe gently and I groaned when I felt his teeth graze the sensitive skin. Gently, he brushed my silky hair away from my neck, ghosting a litany of kisses down it. I could not suppress a moan, tilting my head away slightly and shivering pleasantly.

Gentle fingers caressed my neck, coming up under my chin and teasing the light hair of my sparse attempt at a beard as he turned my head to face his. Amber eyes met mine, dark around the edges, before our lips met lightly again, tongues darting out to taste. He twined his hands into my hair, his drawing me closer as his tongue slid against my bottom lip. Whimpering, I crushed my lips to his, feeding starving loneliness and desire to be touched again. He chuckled, the sound light and no more than a rumble as his tongue slid against mine. My eyes flickered closed of their own accord, and my own long fingers twined into his curly hair, pulling him closer.

Gellert guided me back onto the couch, never letting our lips part as my head touched the soft leather. He pressed me into the soft plush of the couch, grinding against me so slowly, and I clutched him to me, arching against him in turn, feeling our hardened flesh even through the layers of clothing. His fingers were at the collar of my robes, already a few clasps undone, and I tensed, realizing where we were. I twined my hands in his hair and broke our kiss gently as I could, and he bit his lip in a slight smile, looking down at me.

"Gellert..."

He pressed his lips to mine again, "_Das ist okay,_" he murmured thickly.

I groaned, though out of desire or frustration I was not sure. I pulled him away again, whispering, "But we are in the library...Ms. Bagshot will see..."

"_Nein_, she will not. She promised to leave us alone."

I stared at him for a moment, disbelieving, "She...This was a set up!" _Of course, she meddles in everything,_ I thought, _What is there to stop her from being a matchmaker too?_

Gellert kissed the sharp tip of my nose and murmured, "_Ja"_ against my lips. He moved on to press his lips to the sparse hairs on my chin. "I thought you would be ugly..." His accent made him hard to understand, laden with desire for me.

His lips found mine again and I felt my resistance crumbling. His teeth lightly grazed my bottom lip before he continued, "But you are not, _Ich will dir..._I..." He paused, chewing on his lip, "I want you." he finished, a flicker of frustration in his amber eyes.

I smiled at the effort, pulling him back down into a kiss. "I don't want to do it here" I murmured against his lips.

Gellert looked down at me with a deceptively innocent expression. For a moment I thought he might not move, and we might end up doing it there. Abruptly, he looked around the room, squinting into the beam of afternoon sunlight as he sat up. With a quick movement he was on his feet and impatiently dragging me up. I swayed, and his arm was around my waist, settling possessively on my hip as he guided me out of the room.

I looked around for Ms. Bagshot nervously. I'd be terribly embarrassed to be found skulking around her house about to be ravished by her..._what was Gellert's relation to her?_ The thought fled from my mind as Gellert pressed me to the wall at the top of the stairs, grinding hard against me and stifling my moans with his lips. I strained to hear something, anything, over the frantic beating of my heart and cock, but nothing reached my ears.

Gellert pulled me into the only open door in the hallway and closed it quickly, pressing me against it. His hands were seemingly everywhere as he kissed me fiercely, eager to touch all of me at once. His fingers fumbled at the remaining clasps of my intricate robes and in his haste the clasps snagged in the violet lace trim. Hissing, he tugged fruitlessly at the snared fabric, and I placed my hands on his to guide them away, fearing that he would tear it. He whined low in his throat, thinking perhaps I'd deny him. I simply waved my hand and wandlessly charmed the clasps open, something I'd learned to do to spare my clothes when...The thought of Elphias slipped away as quickly as my robes slid from my bare shoulders to pile at my feet.

I was shirtless under the robes, a concession to the hot weather, and was only wearing a thin, white kilt. The cotton strained against my erection, precum rendering the fabric translucent where it stretched tightly against it. Gellert's thumbs were already curled around the waistband, and he looked all the while like a child opening a present on Christmas day as he slid the fabric down with agonizing slowness. He let the garment fall around my ankles and dropped to his knees, looking hungrily up at me. I shifted uneasily under his intensity, a hot blush colouring my cheeks.

I jumped slightly when I heard a click behind me and looked to see Gellert's wand up. I breathed a sigh of relief as I realized he'd merely locked the door that I was leaning against. I looked at my discarded robes around my feet, and his eyes followed mine. He patted them, seeking my wand, his eyebrows arched at some of the more mysterious things he felt as he searched. Finally, he found what he sought and handed it to me.

I murmured silencing spells and an additional ward that was stronger than just a lock. He arched his eyebrow at the unfamiliar spellwork, but I merely smiled mysteriously at him. I ran a hand through his pecan coloured curls, and he leaned into the touch briefly, gazing up at me with flashing eyes. He smirked at me, then slid his tongue over the head of my cock, curling his tongue around it and licking the pearl of liquid gathered there, leaving me shuddering helplessly against the door, a soft moan escaping my lips. This was nothing like I'd ever felt, having never convinced Elphias to do this, or to allow me to service him.

Gellert pulled me closer, firmly holding me by the hips as he glanced briefly up at me again. I gained the barest flash of want and desire before his lips closed on the head of my length. My hips twitched forward and I understood why he held me so tightly. Regardless, my fingers twined into his golden curls and I strained hard not to pull at it when he swallowed me with a swift movement. His head bobbed swiftly, and pleasure bubbled up, like a mountain spring, and I couldn't silence my whimpers, pulling gently at his hair as I felt my climax approaching. Gellert made a sound, though I could not tell if it was assent or denial, and the vibration of it sent me over the edge, my cry loud even to my ears. I trembled as he sucked hard, taking everything that I had to offer him and gripping me so hard now that I was certain I would bruise. The searing pleasure ebbed into a pleasant throb, and he released me, his tongue flicking out to lap at the head of my cock before looking up at me with lidded eyes.

Looking vulnerable for a moment, he grinned at me, rising stiffly to his feet to press his still clothed body to mine. I wanted with all my being to return this gesture, and held him at arms length, but when I made to kneel before him he made a dissatisfied sound, holding me in place with more strength than I thought him capable of.

"_Nein_. I want something else..." He pulled me with him, switching our positions with a little coaxing, and the backs of my knees touched the soft edge of the bed. I tensed, a little afraid, and he kissed me tenderly, pressing me back against the silken coverlet, and I wriggled against him, already half hard.

--Gellert--

I could still taste him, unsurprised that the slight bitterness sent jolts of pleasure through me. I'd learned at Durmstrang not to look like I enjoyed this too much, to inject a certain amount of detachment into it, so they would not learn I truly liked it very much. I had never seen anyone like him, and it disarmed me to see his desire for me. Albus was easily the most beautiful thing I had ever laid eyes on, and he seemed opaquely unaware of it. He was an overflowing cup, and I wanted to drink until I was sick and spent.

Albus looked so vulnerable now, looking at me undress, already hard for me again. I groaned softly, memory of the taste and feel of his ample length still on my mind. It was uncommon for males to be circumcised at Durmstrang and I found the difference arousing. I slipped the last of my garments to the floor, my own hardness straining for him. Albus is looking at me warily from the bed, his gaze firmly upon my thick shaft and I understood the nervous look he gave me. C_ould he be...?_

"You don't kiss like a virgin." He flushed red and clutched the coverlet, looking away from me, embarrassed.

"N...no, I'm not. But....I've never..." Albus trailed off and I held his chin between my fingers, and turned his face to mine to place a light kiss on his lips. _He is sugar's sweetness, _I thought, as his shining blue eyes met mine,_ oh so sweet. _I kissed him again, slipping my tongue between his supple lips as I pressed him back onto the mattress. I shivered as his hands ghosted along my shoulders like feathers. I pressed myself against him, wanting to meld with him. I slid a hand under his slender waist, marvelling at the soft skin, and he groaned, arching against me.

I nudged his knees apart and he trembled and gripped my shoulders, a flash of naked fear and desire flitting across his face. I cast my eyes around the room, looking for something to ease my way. They fell on a rather conspicuous jar that hadn't been on my table when I left the room this morning, and I shrugged, grabbing it. Grateful that there was no fragrance, I dipped a finger into it, mildly surprised as it warmed my fingers ever so slightly. I pushed Albus back down to the sheets and slid my palms along his hips, ghosting around his hardness down to his thighs, pressing open mouthed kisses to the delicate flesh as he trembled and clenched the sheets in and effort to still himself.

I lifted his legs up around my neck, the skin tantalizingly soft with the ripple of hard muscle underneath. My fingers found his trembling arsehole, sliding the warm gel around it before pressing so gently with one finger, sliding past the virgin opening to caress the trembling heat of him. Oh he was going to be so tight, I'd never had the privilege of breaking a virgin before. I slid another finger into him and he cried out softly, his eyes shut as he pressed his cheek to the coverlet, tears sparkling on his red eyelashes. A lurch of sympathy from me, suddenly remembering my own first time, and feeling a pang of guilt that I would not be able to treat him as gently. I wondered at his previous experiences, pressing two fingers firmly against the spot I'd found would cause my partners to arch hungrily against me, no matter how detached they tried to seem. Albus' cry was sharp and gasping, his eyes suddenly open and looking at me as I pressed again, suppressing a grin as his hips arched against my fingers and he fell back, keening my name.

I shifted, sliding a balm-slick hand along my hardness, pressing my fingers firmly against the base, desperate not to come, but oh so close. I shifted him, reaching for a pillow, which I placed under his ass. Positioning myself I pressed into him, my hiss of pleasure, and his of pain as the head slid in slowly, then pressed hard against him, sheathing myself in his trembling heat. I fought to still myself for a moment and fisted a hand into his hair as waves of pleasure washed over me. Albus' eyes were closed again, and the shine of tears on his cheeks almost made me withdraw from him. But I couldn't stop _now, _he was so hot, and it was like sliding home, and I couldn't stop the movement of my hips as I thrust slowly into him.

--Albus--

Amber eyes flashed apologetically as he thrust forward, trembling as he fought for control of himself. It burned, but when I met his eyes I could feel him struggle to be gentle with me, though he was a slave to my body now. With a soft growl he pushed my legs against my chest and thrust hard and fast into me, aiming unerringly for the spot that had caused me so much pleasure before. Fire flared inside me, and my hips met his as best as I could in my prone position. I strained for him as he rode me hard, the slap of flesh against flesh the only sounds for a while, punctuated by my own whimpers and his increasingly harsh breathing, grinding me hard into the mattress. I clutched at his shoulders and felt him tremble against me with a ragged groan, his thrusts hard and swift, looking into my eyes suddenly.

"_Bitte...oh bitte...ich komme!_" Gellert stiffened against me, grinding painfully hard into me as he climaxed, pressing me so hard into the mattress as he trembled and drove himself deeper with erratic thrusts. Slowly he stilled, panting hard against my neck for a moment, his cock slipping out of my arse, slick with cum. I trembled as his fingers encircled my hardness, and that was all it took, the touch sparking me over the edge, my pearly seed spurting onto his fingers as he worked me. Gellert was murmuring in his native German as he drew his fingers away, looking at me speculatively as he licked the seed from his fingers and bit his lip again, his cheeks flushed.

--Gellert--

Nobody had ever let me do that before, let me cum inside. Always twisting away before I could, or abruptly pulling out of me to shoot their seed onto my waiting back. I was overwhelmed, still breathless as I licked his seed from my fingers, noting the lack of disgust as he gazed at me with sleepy eyes. Everyone had always kept me at arms distance, and his gentleness made me yearn afresh for affection. I wanted more than anything to gather him in the coverlet and kiss him and caress him until he fell asleep against me.

Albus' blue eyes drifted closed and I leaned in to kiss the salty tears from his cheeks. He looked blearily at me, and I smiled and coaxed him further up on the bed, my heart skipping as he curled against me. His cheek rested against my chest, and one arm curled around my waist as he dropped back to sleep. The feeling that washed over me was unfamiliar in its warmth as I gazed fondly at him.

I was awake for a long time, running my fingers through his silky ginger hair, marvelling at how well kept it was, how it flowed through my fingers like water, a shade of copper I had never had the luck to see up close. His skin was pale against mine, flecked with freckles that were the same colour as his hair, gathering densely on his bony shoulders, along his arms, the lightest splatter of them on his cheeks and the bridge of his straight nose. I traced them with the tip of my finger, smiling as he murmured softly when I would graze a particularly sensitive patch of skin. Before long I dropped off to sleep as well, content and feeling like the luckiest man.

--Albus--

It was warm, and I could hear the steady thump of a heartbeat where my head lay. I didn't want to open my eyes, afraid that if I did, it would only be a dream, though the pleasant ache in my arse told me otherwise. I opened my eyes reluctantly, stretching and feeling Gellert stir at my movement. It was swiftly by a cry of shock as I realized that the room was **dark**! I scrambled off the bed, swaying on my feet as they hit the cold wood flooring. I had been gone too long, I had to get back to my siblings!

I scrambled in the darkness to find my wand, and I heard a soft "_Leicht_" and a bubble of light behind me. Gellert's lips pressed against my bare shoulder as he held his lighted wand up for me. I grabbed my wand from where it had fallen to the floor, wondering when I had dropped it in our hasty pleasures. I spared a glance behind me, Gellert looked put off by my hasty dressing, frowning and sitting back on the bed as I murmured "_Lumos_." and searched for my socks.

"Regret already?" I was startled by the note of hurt I heard in his voice. He was looking resolutely at the coverlet, not meeting my eyes.

"N...no..." How could I explain that my mad sister and brother needed my attention and that I had to tend to them?

I flashed him an apologetic look, and undid the wards on the room, looking back over my shoulder at Gellert as he looked at me through tousled curls, hurt glittering in his amber eyes as he sat on the bed.. As I slipped out the door, he called to me, "Will I see you again?"

I sighed and blew him a kiss, trying to call up a smile that I didn't feel, a lump thick in my throat, "Yes, I'll try..." I ran down the stairs, afraid that if I looked back at him, that I would be tempted into staying forever. My shoulders shook in a silent sob as I wiped tears from my eyes fiercely and I shuffled back to my home in the dark.

Our home was scant distance away from Ms. Bagshot's, and I was grateful to see the house was still in one piece. Aberforth was at the door instantly, his face a mask of anger, "Where have you been?"

"Ms. Bagshot's...."

"Then why do you smell like come?"

I bristled at his frankness, my wand out and under his chin, "That, is none of your business! Fine thing coming from someone who smells like **goat**!" I was startled that he was so spot on as to my whereabouts, though I had not lied to him. He sneered and batted my hand away. I frowned and pushed past him, through the glass doors to the kitchen, furiously calling up pots and pans to start dinner, and he followed me in, the glass doors shaking with the force that he closed them.

"Don't bother, I already fed her n' myself. Fine guardian you are!" Stung, I let the pots clatter to the counter, leaving the kitchen, though my stomach ached for sustenance. Thankfully, Aberforth did not follow me up. I did not care how Ariana was tonight, and it was truly none of my brother's business where I had been. I'd just craved a moment of peace from _this._ I slammed my door so hard the foundation rattled. Pulling out my wand again, I savagely called up the customary wards to keep my room from unwanted intruders, plus another should anyone cross it tonight would sting like a whip. The very same I had cast on Gellert's room just hours before. With a little whimper, I flopped onto the bed, curling into a ball around a pillow, hungry in more than one way.

I had barely met Gellert, but now he was all that was on my mind. Not just sex, though the thought of him caused me to harden. _No, not just that_, I reasoned, but what we had discussed before things had gotten hot and heavy. _The Hallows. If they are real...things could be so much different. I would be free to leave this place and follow the destiny that had been so cruelly taken from me. If I had....if __**we**__ had the Hallows, I could leave, my parents could be returned to look over my mad siblings, and I would finally be free again._ _Free._ The word felt hollow to me now. Meaningless. I had been here only a few weeks, but it felt like a prison of secrets and loneliness already.

_And __**Gellert**__, oh Gellert._ I had only met him hours ago, but I wanted desperately to see him again. There was an ache in my heart now that was like nothing I had ever felt, not even with Elphias. _It it too soon __to call it love_, I lied to myself, _best to call it __**lust**__ for now._ But my whole body, nay, my **soul** called to him. I waved my wand and the curtains of my bed closed around me.

Absent-mindedly, I dug in my robes and found the crumpled bag I sought, and soon held a lemon candy in my fingers, slipping it into my mouth. I sucked on it thoughtfully, feeling more lonely than I had this morning, tears stinging my eyes as a dry sob shook me. As the last sugary sliver of the candy dissolved on my lips I fell into a fitful and uneasy sleep.

--Gellert--

He was gone, and I felt hollow for the first time in my life. _Maybe I had been a fool to bear my heart like that after all._ I thought bitterly. I closed my door quietly, not wanting to disturb Frau Bagshot if she was still awake. Why did I still ache for him? Nothing had ever felt like this before, no desire, no pull had ever been this strong and I had just met him. This pain was a new, a dull ache in my chest. I slumped down to the floor. I'd never been the one left alone before, I'd never cared before about the boys I'd fucked. I'd always been the one that left my lovers curled onto their pillows, yearning for me after I was finished with them. _I don't want this._ I couldn't afford to get attached to him, and he probably didn't want to see me again anyway.

Sighing heavily, I wandered to my untouched trunk, still nude as I opened it, pulling out all of the notes I had gathered from my search for the Hallows. Grumbling at the haphazard way that the edges were crumpled from a too hasty pack spell, I set them on my bed. Sighing, I gathered my robes over my head and wandered back downstairs to the library to retrieve the rest of the books I had gathered.

The kitchen light was on and Frau Bagshot sat at the table, a teacup in her hands. I had hoped to slip past her, but she called to me as I skulked on the edges of the triangle of light, "Come and have dinner honey, I know you haven't eaten." I blushed, suddenly acutely aware of the set-up I had fallen for. I appreciated the gesture, better that she be sympathetic to my desires than openly hostile. I reluctantly sat across from her, and she floated a tray to me that was set down without the slightest sound.

"He will be back honey." I bristled at the endearment, but managed to keep my face neutral. "He has obligations at home that he can't ignore."

"Mm" I eyed the dome, hoping there were not more of those strange sandwiches under it, and I was grateful when it revealed other, more substantial food. I ate slowly, not really tasting any of it, using the time to avoid having to talk to Frau Bagshot. A part of me was relieved that I would see Albus again. My eyes were drawn to the window that faced out into the murky night, and I realized I didn't even know where Albus lived. The thought was briefly agonizing, and I swallowed thickly, too embarrassed to ask. I hoped Frau Bagshot was right about the lovely boy, or I would search the town high and low for him tomorrow. Could it be that I could convince him to seek the Hallows with me?

I stood, my food half eaten, and wandered to the Library. Frau Bagshot let me go without protest, and I could hear the clatter of dishes from the kitchen as they were cleaned. I did not bother with light, the triangle of light from the kitchen was enough to see where I had left the books, which I took wordlessly back to my room, intending to bury myself in research. But once there, I couldn't focus, my eyes drawn to the night, and my thoughts to Albus. I sighed heavily, I was not going to get anything done this way. I gathered everything into a pile and set it aside, and curled under the covers despite the balminess of the night, falling into an unhappy sleep.


	8. The Gravestone

**Author's Note: I am sorry for the (very long) delay, most of the chapters from here on out will be in some state of unbeta'dness as I post them during the next day or two. So any mistakes are mine. I am glad everyone is enjoying this. It will get weirder later on, and I apologize for any gaps in the storyline, and there will be some as the story progresses through their lives. Enjoy!**

**The Gravestone**

**_-Albus-_**

We were walking down the lane, the merciless summer sun beating down on our backs. I had come awkwardly to Ms. Bagshot's house early in the morning, unable to sleep any longer. Gellert had bounded to the door before she could, and when he had shamelessly hugged me, I knew it would be okay. Now we were outside, after I mentioned that one of the Perevell brothers was buried here in Godric's Hollow. I was still not quite ready to accept it as fact, but the hope nagged at me nonetheless.

"Imagine Albus! If we could control all of this!" He twirled around, arms outstretched, grinning wildly. His glee was catching, and I found myself smiling anyway.

"Why would you want to?" I gazed around at the dull little town, wondering why anyone would want to rule over this place. He took both my hands in his, and I tried to pull away, too aware that Godric's Hollow was a mixed community, and such a thing wasn't **proper** to do. He held tight, that light smile still on his face.

"You are thinking too narrowly oh _mein _Albus...Think if we controlled the **world**, if we could change it, make it _besser_!"

I squeezed his fingers, "What would you do to change the world?" Gellert did not answer, but broke from me, running ahead to the little graveyard next to the empty chapel, laughter hanging in the air in his wake. I followed him at a more sedate pace, a sudden jolt of sadness washing over me. He was standing over a grave, a fresh one that I had hoped to never tell him about. I drew close, trying to swallow the lump in my throat, and quell the tears that stung my eyes. My mother's grave...

To my surprise, he wrapped his arms around me, and proper or not, I leaned against him, unable to suppress a sob. We stood like that for a long time, he stroking my hair and back, and my tears spilling onto his shoulder as waves of hopelessness washed over me anew. Presently, my tears ran dry, and I sucked in a shuttering, dry breath, wincing at the sharpness in my throat. He said nothing, and I was glad of it, for I did not think I could have borne another meaningless platitude.

Gellert gently led me away from there, his hand twined in mine, and I leaned against him, defeated by my melancholy. We wandered the graves idly, just walking for a while, putting some distance between ourselves and fresh wounds. We were at the edge of the graveyard, and Gellert broke away to peer more closely at the worn stone, some of the stones completely worn away with age. I stood, watching, too drained to put much effort into it, but it did not take him too long to find the gravestone he was looking for. It was behind an overgrown hedge, well hidden from the rest of the stones.

I knelt next to him, watching him trace the symbol of the Hallows, a faded triangle, with a circle inside,and a line bisecting both the circle and the inside of the triangle. The name Perevell was barely legible now, the stone itself covered in moss and vines.

"Dis is the best proofs yet..." He said reverently, a hardness in his eyes I hadn't seen until now.

"Gellert...What would you do if you had them...if **we** had them? The Hallows I mean..." He looked up at me, pulling me down to sit beside him, one arm snaking possessively around my waist, and I leaned my head on his shoulder.

"We need to show the Muggles that we need not hide any longer! We are _besser_ than them, and it is time that we **rise** and take our rightful place as their superiors!"

My blood ran cold at his words, "And how would we accomplish this? Genocide?" I frowned disapprovingly at him, but I thought of the Muggles that had assaulted my sister. I shook my head, I could not think this way, it was not **right** to do so!

Gellert's fingers were on my face, turning it to face his, "You do not believe we could do it. We could be **heroes** of the wizarding world Albus! Think of it, the two Chancellors, overseeing everything that has gone **wrong** in the world, making it **right** again!" He frowned, realizing perhaps that he had gone to far? Leaning in close, he kissed me gently, frowning still. "You do not agree..."

"Gellert, what you're proposing is anarchy, it's cruelty!"

"_Nein_, it is **revolution** that we will bring about. Think about it Albus, what if we **could** change the world?"

"I wouldn't want it to be like this..." A voice in my head screamed that my sister needn't have died, if it weren't for Muggles, and I found it harder and harder to ignore. I stood, brushing my robes off, "I can't agree with this Gellert."

**_-Gellert-_****-**

I walked after him, upset and yearning for Albus to understand what I wanted to do. A world where we would not have to **hide**, a world where we were not feared, where we had our rightful place as the superior beings. Something had happened with his mother, and his resistance to talking about his siblings sent little hints to me that he was not telling me the whole truth. I was certain that Albus' mother had died unexpectedly, and by the look and shiver that shook his shoulders as he passed the gravestone again, violently. But what?

I placed a hand on his shoulder, and I was satisfied when he paused and turned, the anger I'd seen flicker across his face gone, but his eyes were guarded. "What happened to her?" He turned away from me, and I thought he might run then, but he stood his ground.

"I can't tell you." He sighed the words, but his eyes pleaded for an understanding ear. I thought he would say something, but he turned away again and continued to walk, "I can't"

Still curious, but not wanting to anger him further, I followed him out of the graveyard, and when he made to go back to his house, took him by the hand to Frau Bagshot's instead.


	9. Etched in Blood

**Etched In Blood**

**_-Gellert-_**

Pretending to read, I was watching him write furiously upon a piece of parchment, sprawled out on his stomach upon my bed. Albus' hair was tied messily into a loose coil, silky tendrils of it falling out and tickling his neck and falling into his eyes, where he would blow at it and go back to writing. It was very hot today, and I had deliberately opened the windows and let the sticky air into my normally cool room, though I was sure he had not noticed that it was a ploy to get him to take off layer after layer of clothing, and expose more of his lovely body to me.

I would never tire of looking at him, even though I had seen him naked a fair amount of times so far, seldom did I get to linger on his form. He had a great deal of freckles on his pale skin, and I liked it very much, especially the speckling of them on the small of his back and across his straight nose and cheeks. He was thin, but not extremely so, he was lithe, and what muscle he had developed was sheathed in soft skin and a dusting of light copper hairs, as soft as peach fuzz.

Albus had undressed down to a slender skirt, that he insisted was **not** a skirt, but a kilt, though I thought that kilts were made from tartan, and had told him so. It was long, reaching to his ankles, baby blue to match his favourite robes, and hugged his narrow hips and ass, widening enough that one of his slender legs kicked idly against his back. I was fairly certain he was naked under the skirt, from previous experience peeling the garment from his wanting body.

I was also dressed in only tight leather pants, my chest bare and slick with a sheen of sweat on my tanned skin. I had wasted no time in laying outside, concealed by a fair number of wards, to regain the tan I had lost while cloistered at Durmstrang. I watched as the red caress of sunset fell over his body, darkening to violet, and finally I lit a candle when the last mote of sun had fallen below the horizon.

"Albie..." He looked up at me, startled at the endearment and blinking owlishly.

"When did it become night?"

"An hour ago _mein liebe_" I set the book aside, and tugged the translations that he had been transcribing from an old tome from him. He did not protest as I locked them in a cabinet by the bed, with all of our research, and was laying with his head cradled in his arms still, blinking sleepily.

I straddled his hips and sat back on his thighs, teasingly grazing my fingers across his bare back and down his spine, lips curling into a smile as he panted against the pillow he'd propped himself upon to transcribe. I reached for one of the bottles on the night stand, and my wand, pouring a small amount onto my hands and warming it in my palms. "You are too tense..." He murmured into the pillow as I kneaded his tense shoulders, massaging in small, firm circles along his shoulder blades, he would whimper every so often, when I encountered more resistant coils of tensed flesh. Soon enough though he was mewling under me, his skin shining with oil, boneless under me.

"Albie...are you committed to the cause of the Hallows?" I said quietly, twisting a knife in my hand this way and that, catching the light off of the keen edge.

He made a little sound, and whispered, "For you, I am committed."

I raised my wand, and tied his hands, pleased that he did not fight me, allowing the silky rope to coil around his hands and secure itself to the sturdy wooden framework of the bed. My weight held his legs down, and I heated the knife in the candle that now floated close to me.

"Then, would you take the mark of the Hallows on yourself?"

"Gellert?" He was unable to twist and see what I did now, though he struggled slightly against me.

"Would you?" I pushed, caressing the smooth skin just above his subtly rounded arse. "For me? I will take it also."

"Gellert...I..."

"_Bitte_"

I felt him relax slightly under me, "Yes, for you I will. But now...?"

I held up the heated knife, smiling at the curl of heat off of it, "Shhh"

I had set the wards in place and silenced the room when we had first arrived, knowing that Albus was a screamer, and I was not disappointed when the edge of the knife ever so lightly touched his skin, the faint sizzle of burned flesh. Each time my blade came down upon his skin, to etch another piece of the sign onto him, he arched and struggled, held tightly by my weight and the ropes. His first scream had been of pain, but had subsided into whimpers as I worked quickly, the sign etched flawlessly into his reddened skin, a permanent scarification for our cause.

I rubbed dittany balm onto the wound, the red disappearing from the mark, leaving just the scar, slightly red and shining. Perfect. Rubbing the balm onto the coverlet, I grabbed the oil I had used to massage him and I slid the skirt off of his limp body, freeing my throbbing erection and slicking it before burying myself into his body. His shoulders trembled as I rode him hard, his cries of pain slowly ebbing into little moans, the sound of skin against skin driving me on until I could feel the pleasure building to its peak, pulling out of him and spilling my seed upon the mark on his flesh, watching it stick to his heated skin, groaning and leaning against his trembling body.

_**-Albus-**_

Gellert let me up, and I rubbed my wrists, still rather hard, despite the pain of what he had done earlier...had it been a knife? I looked around and found there was indeed a knife on the table, along with the replaced candle, and the oil and balm, still open as well. He was looking at me, and I did not know if I wanted to scold him for being so forceful, or to ask him to do it again. Despite the dittany, the small of my back tingled ever so slightly, and I liked the feeling very much.

"You must do me now." Gellert said, stretching sinuously onto his stomach.

"You will not have to tie me, I will be good..." he arched his back suggestively and wriggled out of those tight pants that had been driving me crazy all day with the hint of what lay under them. I toed my kilt off, and Gellert crawled closer to the candle, arching his back again before settling and allowing me to straddle him. I was not expecting this, normally on the receiving side of his affection, though it was not so bad at all. Presently, I ached for him, wanting nothing more than to bury myself in his heat and show him I could control him, bend him.

Still, hurting him was not appealing, and I eyed the knife, swallowing bile.

"Take me first, then do it..." I was not so sure I would have a steady hand if I were surrounded by his heat, but reached for the oil anyway, my fingers sliding lightly over the engorged head of my cock, then down the shaft, firmly and I moaned. I wanted to be gentle, but a part of me wanted payback for earlier, and I sheathed my cock inside of him, and he cursed in his native tongue, fisting the blankets. I paused gripping his hips and and trying to steady my breathing as he twitched around me, by Merlin was he tight.

"Do it...heat it in the candle first" Gellert ground out before burying his face in a pillow.

The knife, right. I took it, and held the tip in the flickering candle flame, watching it lick the edges until it smoked, and I considered the burnished gold untouched skin above his arse before placing it lightly against his skin, marvelling at how easy it burned into his skin, and he hissed in pain, but was still as promised, drawing a moan from me as his heat around my cock tightened. I worked quickly, like Gellert had, each cut eliciting hisses and moans from him, trills of pleasure jolting through me from the sound and his tightness.

Finally it was finished, and I lightly coated it with the balm, feeling him relax slightly, then arch against me, urging me on. I slowly rode him, teasing him with the slowest of thrusts, delighting in how he ground against me and mewled, enjoying it much more than I thought he would, and I wondered if he was often on the receiving end of the cocks of many Durmstrang boys. The thought did not bother me very much, and I ground against him, kissing his shoulders, spine, nibbling on the edge of an exposed ear, the tempo of my thrusts faster and faster, and he met them without hesitation, a steady stream of breathy moans and curses pulling me closer and closer until I couldn't take it any more, thrusting hard and fast into him, digging my fingers into his hard flesh as I felt my seed shoot into his waiting heat, humping him slowly until I was spent.

He grinned up at me as he cleaned himself and I, biting his lip and trailing his fingers along my jaw, pulling me close to kiss me, tongue twining with mine for a long while, before breaking breathlessly and leaning his head on my shoulder, "It is done, we will be **great **Albus, you will see..."


	10. Thunder's Like Candy Floss

**Thunder's like Candy floss**

_**-Albus-**_

Our summer was filled with conversations about the Greater Good, and the more that he impressed the importance of wizarding rule upon me, the more it began to stick in my mind. To my surprise, my insistence on a soft revolution, where we used the least amount of force that was necessary he took to heart. Today however, I was home, as Ariana was feeling ill, and there had been too many accidents in the house already. Wincing at the char on one door frame that I could not seem to remove with spell or cloth, I brought a tray to her room.

Her door was open, and she coughed miserably. The line that we gave that she was delicate was not entirely wrong. Sure, she was mad, but years of isolation and madness had taken a toll on her physical health as well. Sicknesses like this were common, even in the summertime, as if she did not have it bad enough when she was merely **mad**. I set the tray down, and looked at her, her body turned away from the door.

There were times when I nor Aberforth could convince her to keep the door open. Times where we could not get the door open at all, her wild magic sticking it shut. I had cut a small hole in the base, and installed a flap, so that we may feed her at such times as that, which undoubtedly would appear cruel to the onlooker's eye. Today though, she was too sick to retaliate, but I left the tray anyway, knowing better than to coax her to eat the delicate sandwiches.

Leaving a teapot also, carefully warmed beforehand without magic, I backed out of the room and shut the door behind me. There was laundry to be taken care of, and another attempt at scrubbing the charred marks Ariana had made in the hallway last time that she had a fit. I thought to myself as I bustled around our small house, discreetly charming the clothes to start to scrub themselves as I wandered about the basement.

Peering in the pump room, as this was previously a Muggle house. It was nice to have running water, and not have to use magic, and I had to give them credit for coming up with such an ingenious device. I rummaged there, picking a few potatoes and other vegetables from the cool room, which I had charmed further so it would be cool enough to store meat and cheese as well. Folding them into a layer of my long robes, I trudged back upstairs.

Aberforth was not able to take care of Ariana today because one of his precious goats was kidding, and he wanted to tend to it. I sighed heavily and tumbled the vegetables into a basket on the counter. As stupid as my brother thought it I shared my mother's interest in cooking without magic. It took longer of course, and lately I had not done it, so immersed in what Gellert had to say, that I was rarely home.

It had taken a row between my brother and myself to keep me home today, and I resented it, though I tried to push it out of my mind. I wished for Gellert's happy company, but of course it was not possible that he could visit at all. So today would be a day without him, and I couldn't help but stare blandly out the back window for a moment, wishing he would show up spontaneously and whisk me away from here.

Shaking my head I set to the task of cutting the vegetables, I was no damsel in distress, though the idea did appeal to me just now. I heard the doorbell ring, and it took every ounce of my willpower to stay where I was, the wards and locks in place, and let it ring. Our land to the back was carefully warded and surrounded by high, thorny hedge besides. Even if Gellert did decide to walk around, he would not have been able to see inside. I looked hopefully into the yard anyway, seeing the untidy mop of Aberforth's hair emerge from time to time, but no golden curls to be seen.

I finished dinner as it was darkening outside, having taken my sweet time with it to keep my mind off of Gellert by keeping my hands busy at least. I left food for Aberforth, having already taken my meal. I passed by Ariana's room, and hearing her active, chose to slide her food through the slot, rather than open the door now. I conjured another pot of tea as carefully and silently as possible, filling it with an pungent herbal tea and sweetening it with honey before pushing that through as well. Moments later I heard her take the food, and I straightened and left to my room.

Dropping some of the more extreme wards now that darkness would do their job just as well, I undressed and curled under my light sheet. I fell asleep quickly, more exhausted from the day's manual labour than I had thought. It must have been hours later when I was awakened by a clattering, sharp sound. I sat up and listened again and it repeated after not so long, issuing from my bedroom window. Curious, I drew closer to the window, dragging the sheet along with me to cover myself in what I thought was a moot attempt at decency.

There was another clatter as I looked out the window, this window closed now, for my room was charmed to be cooler than the outside air. There was a curious bump against the window and I looked out, seeing an indistinct shape in the gloom. I squinted, not having taken my glasses with me when I had stood, and regretting it, since my eyesight was not so good without them. Not being able to discern the shape, I opened the window, hearing a jubilant "FINALLY!" from a familiar voice.

I stepped back, realizing that the shape was **Gellert** and that he was perched upon a broom, hovering just outside the window. Chuckling more to himself than at me, he scrambled awkwardly into my room, jumping from the broom and pulling himself in. He was merely a smear of black and gold for me, and I stepped back, suddenly aware of my nakedness. I could smell him, a curious mix of dust and sweat and the soap he used as he drew closer to me.

"Vat did you do all day without me? I tried the door, but you did not answer!" He sounded hurt, and I swallowed guiltily as I sat on the bed, reaching for my glasses. I blinked as my vision cleared and he sat beside me, still searching for an answer to my seclusion. One hand in my hair, slowly running his fingers through the tangles, waiting more patiently than I ever gave him credit for as I scrambled for an excuse.

"Aberforth had to take care of the goats today..." Gellert rested his chin on my shoulder.

"You are not telling me the truth..." he trailed off, breath ghosting my neck. "What are you hiding here?" He looked around at my colourful room, and back at me, wrapped in a sheet the colour of fresh raspberries. He pounced on me, causing me to fall back onto my bed with a soft "oof", pinning me down and grinning at me. "I am not going to let you go until you tell me!" Gellert announced gleefully, grinding his hips teasingly against mine, smirking as I squirmed and hissed.

"I **am** telling the truth..." Gellert only frowned at me, and I sighed.

"You are not telling me the **whole** truth den!"

"I can't"

"Why not?" He breathed, kissing me gently, "What could be so bad that you have to keep it from me? Do you not trust me?" But my reply was cut off by a resounding boom, followed by a jagged crash and a scream. I tensed, trying to keep Gellert from getting up, but my hand closed on air as he jumped up, the door already open and his head outside, peering around.

I quickly pulled a simple sleeping robe over my head, pulling him away from the door and slipping past him, my wand at the ready as I scrambled down the stairs. I reached Ariana's room to see it empty, and tensed, hearing the jagged crash of glass from the kitchen. She was there, standing in the kitchen where she was not allowed to go, a wild crackle of uncontrolled energy searing out from around her. Ariana was screaming as Aberforth attempted to restrain her unsuccessfully, not strong enough magically to do more than try to physically restrain her.

His hair was standing on end, and I winced, remembering countless times where I had accidentally touched her, the searing pain washing over me, leaving a numbness in its wake. I could not imagine what kind of pain sustained contact felt like, and I called up the strongest shield I could, containing the wild lightening of her magic into smaller and smaller spheres, squeezing the power out of it. "Let go of her Aberforth!" I called, and my brother let go of her, and I shaped the shield around her in a loose egg, her wild magic contained within it.

Ariana was still screaming, her anger now focused on being restrained. I strained with the effort of keeping the egg in place, having no choice but to hold it in place until she exhausted herself. I felt a pair of hands on mine, arms around mine, and a jolt of power added to mine, easing the strain. Gellert's hands. I saw Aberforth's stormy expression, and shook my head—now was not the time or place. Soon enough, Ariana crumpled like a rag doll to the floor, having expelled the magic that itched her mind so, unconscious for now.

"He shouldn't be here." Aberforth's voice was low and furious.

"I don't care right now." I said, murmuring "Levicorpus" and floating Ariana's limp body out of the room and back into hers, just around the corner from our kitchen. Gellert followed me out, watching me arrange her on the bed and shut the door quietly. The silence pressed around us, and I turned to Gellert awkwardly, seeing my brother behind him, still looking mutinous. "Aberforth please..."

"No, he can't know."

A flash of uneasiness flitted across Gellert's face as he absorbed what Aberforth meant, "I will not..."

"Swear it"

"Albus..."

I sighed, raising my wand, "I'm sorry, you will have to." Gellert's eyes hardened and I thought for a moment he would fight me, but he blinked and the look was gone.

"_Fein_. I swear. Wizard's oath." He held his wand up and his hand out, and we clasped hands, lingering a little too long before dropping them awkwardly to our sides.

I closed the door behind us, narrowing my eyes at the new scorch marks in the ceiling and wallpaper and floor. "Gellert, please come with me." Aberforth snarled, but I ignored him, taking Gellert's hand and leading him back up the stairs and shutting the door behind me. "You can't tell anyone." I said, as soon as I had redone the wards and locked the door for good measure.

"I won't." He said, putting his arms around me, and I unconsciously leaned against him, sighing.

"Why do you keep her?" Gellert asked, nose buried in my hair, inhaling deeply.

"I...I owe it to my mother's memory."

"Oh. I see." he hugged me closer.

"No, no you don't..." He held me at arm's length, his expression more sympathetic than I thought it would be.

"She killed your mother didn't she?" A surge of mixed anger and sadness blinded me for a moment, and I stiffened in his embrace.

"Yes. She is the reason I am stuck here."

"She should not be your responsibility."

"I can't abandon her now, not after the sacrifices..."

"She would be better taken care of elsewhere"

"I **know** that, but I can't."

We sat on the bed, and I curled up onto it, too drained from my magical effort to restrain Ariana, the stress of the situation, and the overall hopeless task given me. Gellert sat by me, his hand on my shoulder, petting my hair. "Muggles. It was Muggles. Dat is why you argue with me...why do you defend them when they have destroyed your life?"

I sighed heavily, not in the mood to get into another argument, "It isn't that they are Muggles, it's that you are proposing **murder** and I don't agree with_ that_. If we are going to make this last, we need to use only the force that is necessary. I wrote you last night, stressing that!"

"But without force, we cannot truly seize power!"

"Silent coups speak volumes. We need not kill to get the job done. For Merlin's sake Gellert, we are wizards, we should be better than that, better than brute force! Better than..." I'd said too much already.

His hands were still in my hair. "Dat is it isn't it? They hurt her didn't they?"

I sat up, looking at him warily, "Yes Gellert, she was **raped** and beaten by them. But I dream of a world where we aren't separated by fear and cowardice! Where that need not have happened because our children play **together** and do not fear the other! When we don't need force to garner respect! Where we could exchange information and benefit each other, instead of repeating these cycles of vicious violence!" I trailed off, weary of fighting over this.

I loved Gellert, I knew that now, but his methods left something to be desired for me. He was looking at me, his face a mask of neutrality, and I feared I'd stepped too far.

"You are my heart when I do not have one." he said finally, scooting closer to me and wrapping an arm around my tense shoulders, a thumb gently pressing into the sore flesh and rubbing comforting circles. I relaxed, realizing that he would not argue with me tonight. "I understand. You do not think I do, but if it were my sister..." He shivered, and I heard him swallow, "...I might do the same."

"You have a sister?"

"_Ja_, an older sister. She means the world to me. Maybe the only family I have now."

I said nothing, what could I say really? It was not often that Gellert talked about what had happened at Durmstrang, and less that he mentioned his estrangement from his family. I had managed to pry from him the basest of details, that he was the black sheep of his family, that he was estranged from them, and here until he was an adult. It was a date he had not yet told me, though I suspected it was not so far off. Farther than my own birthday, my 18th, which was in a scant day. I did not know if I even wanted to celebrate it, or mention it at all.

"Vat are you thinking?" I jumped, startled.

"I don't want to talk about it anymore Gellert." He sighed, nuzzling my neck and resting his chin on my shoulder. "I need time to think Gellert, I'm sorry..."

He kissed my neck, squeezing my shoulders affectionately. "_Das ist okay_. I will see you tomorrow _mein liebe, _in time for your birthday!" I tensed and he skipped off the bed, grabbing the broom he had propped next to the window he'd climbed in. Flashing me a cheeky grin, he jumped out of the window, one leg slung over the broom and he was gone.

How had he known? But I knew that, Ms. Bagshot told him of course. She knew **everything **about us, somehow, without my volunteering anything. Sometimes I wondered if she was like Elphias, the way she absorbed information like that. I lay back down, not bothering to even undress, should something else happen in the night, and dropped off to sleep.


	11. Love and the Promise

**Author's Note:**I am not warning for any of the stuff from now on. ALL of the things I warned for in the description will start to happen here on out. There is a piece of art that goes with this chapter here: /L9jxM if you wanted to know what the dress looked like.

There are MANY chapters to go. The chapters are named after a Nanowrimo thread about book titles. I had so many I liked, that I just made appropriate titles for each chapter. Enjoy!

**Love and the Promise**

_** -Albus-**_

Gellert was at my door, bright and early, and I was currently leaning tiredly against him, a cup of tea in one hand. He was ranting on about something, but I was not really listening to what he was saying, content to listen to his voice. He knew it, turning to me as I sipped my honeyed Earl Grey, peering at him over the rim, "I have been talking in _Deutsch _for the last 15 _minuten_, _mein liebe_. Are you awake yet?" I snorted and sipped my tea, really it was too early for this.

"I think we should go to London!" He enunciated every syllable, his amber eyes intense upon me. We had been to Berlin the previous weekend.

"You have some plan don't you?" He frowned, then slowly his lips curled into another grin, "_Ja_... _Ist..."_

"mmm. What are you planning...?" Gellert had the grace to blush, and I knew I was in for something. "What is it...?"

Gellert jumped up, digging into the cabinet, pulling something out that was shrouded in coloured paper, slightly dusty. "I found dis..." He lay it on his bed in front of me,and I watched as he removed the paper carefully, so not to rip it, revealing a dress. I choked on my tea, barely managing to put the cup down with a clatter. Surely he didn't think...he was holding the dress up to my chest, estimating. I flushed and looked away, aware of the slide of the fine silk against my bare cheek.

"Whose birthday is this anyway?" I said sullenly, trying to ignore a small part of me that desired more than anything to wear it.

_**-Gellert-**_

This would distract him until later, he did not know what I planned to do tonight, and I hoped I would be able to do it with even a sliver of the grace he had. I'd found the dress a few days ago, such a fine thing, just hidden in a closet. I had a suspicion that Albus would like it, based on what I had seen him wear on a daily basis.

What he was wearing now would certainly be classified as a dress to anyone but a wizard really. And even then, the beautifully adorned blue garment he had on was quite flamboyant. It was tailored to his slender body, sea green, with blue designs sewn into the fabric and abstract patterns down the front. At his waist, it was held together with a loose belt of fabric, where it flared out not unlike a dress. It had an open front, the panels of fabric in front fell only to his knees and the rest flared out to his ankles. He wore a pair of matching trousers under it, subtly flared at the ends over his deceptively plain black stilettos. Over one shoulder, he wore a cloak, and if I did not know him as well as I did, I would think him hot under that clothing, and would be surprised that it was cold at the touch.

I could spend the entire afternoon looking at him, but presently I held the dress, and I was determined to get him to wear it, for the idea appealed to me to see it upon him, and I suspected he would like it once I managed to get him in it. I lay it on the bed, and rummaged for the corset I had seen there. He would not need it to fit into the dress, but I shivered and hardened to think of strapping him into it anyway.

He was looking at me, and predictably, he wasn't running away. Good. As much as I would love to strap him down and tie him to the bed...I shook my head and tried to push the thought from my mind, or I **would **spend all day ravishing him senseless. I had plans for today, **that** would come later. "_kommst,"_ I had to struggle for the proper English word for a moment, "Undress. I will not touch you."

Albus rose slowly, blushing that delicate shade of red that sent shivers down my spine. He had no idea at all of how very _cute _he was. He was looking at me over his delicate golden glasses and I exhaled slowly. "_Bitte..." _I was not above using my accent and throwing in small words in _Deutsch_ in to excite him, I was aware how much it aroused him.

He sighed, and I grinned at him as he unbuckled his cloak, draping it over the chair he had just vacated. Albus slipped off each bit of clothing, the robe, which he folded before he draped it along with the cloak. He squirmed uncomfortably as I watched him intently, very hard for him, my amber eyes undoubtedly darkened. "Everything" I said, hands on his waistband. He allowed me to slide the trousers off, revealing his lovely cock, already straining against the silken panties he wore. I chuckled and placed a kiss to the purple fabric, and he mewled softly.

I went to the corset, and slipped it over his head, tenderly brushing his lovely hair out of his eyes, "Hold your hands over your head," Albus wriggled against me, so sweetly aware of my presence, his cock already tenting the delicate purple silk. I swallowed, and bent to the task of the corset, familiar with the puzzle of intricate silk and whalebone and ribbon, having laced my sister's corset for her countless times. I pulled the ribbons tight, and he gasped as I worked swiftly, tightly binding his lithe body into it, his chest heaving with the effort of breathing in such a tight binding. I was delicate with him, my sister demanded bindings twice as tight as these, which is why I often laced them, our mother not possessing the strength to perform the task. I smiled, though Albus could not see, for I knew he'd probably think it was creepy, but that sort of familial intimacy was not so strange for us.

Walking around him appreciatively, I placed a kiss to his trembling sternum, guiding his hands down into mine. The dress itself was not so old, perhaps a year or two out of season, and I suspected that such dresses were probably everywhere in Frau Bagshot's house, forgotten in her obsession with writing. This one was fine, even to Grindelwald standards: forest green Indian silk, drawn in snugly around the torso, and flowing out like an emerald river from the waist, the barest hint of a bustle on the back of it. The silk petticoats were sewn into the dress, and there was no strange under wiring like I had seen on the fashions of some women that passed by in Godric's Hollow, like bells with legs.

I lifted it over his head, he obediently slipping his arms through and head, the dress sitting just beautifully with the aid of the corset, clinging to his stomach and sliding over his slender legs. Albus' shoes were still on, and I found them to be too severe for this, rummaging for the matching shoes and socks I had seen packaged with this dress, pulling them out of the closet as well. I held them up, and he toed off his stilettos, then the bright purple socks he was wearing, and I slid the light mint coloured socks over his thin feet, tying the ribbons and arranging the ruffle just so. I transfigured the shoes longer, so that they would fit his long feet, sliding them on as well, delicate silken flats, with bows on the fronts. Finally, I produced a sliver of emerald ribbon, and tied his wand to it, binding it against the socks.

I stood, watching him move stiffly, craning around to see himself, the silk clinging to his legs just so. He was beautiful, standing there and I savoured the moment, before focusing on the most difficult task. "Come here _mein liebe_" Albus obeyed, letting me hold him for a moment before bringing my wand up to his face. "We are going out like this, which means..."

He stiffened, whimpering softly in my arms, "Gellert..."

"We cannot have this..." I pulled his small goatee teasingly, "You will not get away with being a girl with this.."

"But it took me..."

"You can grow it back _liebe_, with magic" He tried to remove himself from my grasp, but I pushed him down into the chair, sitting on his lap and pinning him there, wand already at the ready. A sharp sound, and it was done, the surprisingly soft hair of his goatee gone and in my left hand. He made a pitiful sound and I chuckled softly, getting up.

"Some birthday this is so far!" Albus grumbled, his slender fingers massaging his bare chin. His eyes twinkled through his messed hair, and I knew I was forgiven.

I handed him a brush and watched him slide it through his rumpled copper hair until it was shiny and fell like water over his shoulders. I sucked in a breath, seeing him look at me with wide blue eyes, did he not know how breathtaking he was? "Perfect..." I breathed, pressing my lips to his lightly.

"You want me to go outside like this don't you?"

"_Ja_, dat was the _idee_."

"How will we..."

"Apparition of course. I want to see London!"

He pouted, then offered his arm, "Very well, but...in Muggle London only, I am afraid of being recognized like this..." I wanted to add that nobody would be surprised, but did not say so. I took his arm, and we disappeared with a resounding crack.

_**-Albus-**_

We emerged outside in a narrow alley, and I had to stop and gasp for breath, the corset felt a thousand times worse than the squeeze of apparation at the moment. Gellert produced a top hat from a pocket, and I glared at him, jerking my head to the milling Muggle crowd. He smiled at me and put it on his head, and I realized belatedly that he had been dressed for this from the beginning and I had not noticed. I led him down the crowded street, tensing slightly when he wrapped a possessive arm around my waist, then relaxed again. The ruffles upon the breast of this dress concealed the fact I had none, and a look in the mirror earlier assured me that I made a quite passable girl.

We spent most of the day wandering about Muggle London, darting in and out of shops and around the press of a summer's crowd. Presently I was sucking on a sweet, and we were sitting near a fountain, my head on Gellert's shoulder, and his arm around me as I leaned against him. I admitted it was nice to be able to sit here, with the people milling about past us, paying us no mind. What I wouldn't give to be able to sit here, as a man, albeit a rather feminine one, with Gellert, and have nobody care about it. Part of my lust for the Hallows came from that, from the want to be able to walk in the sun with the one I loved and not have to hide it.

I sighed and Gellert hugged me to him, whispering, "We should go back now, it is late" And it was, the golds and reds of sunset casting a rusty blanket on our surroundings. I stood slowly, looking around at the beautiful people passing by, and at Gellert, who was looking at me intensely again. I offered him my arm, though I needn't have, as we both knew the way home. But he took it, and we walked a short way like that, to the darkness of an alleyway, looking around before disappearing.

We reappeared in Gellert's room, and I lay back on the bed, lethargic and finally getting used to the tight binding of the corset. Gellert pressed himself against me, climbing on me and rumpling the fine fabric of the dress. I laughed softly, and he kissed my bare chin, murmuring a spell and regrowing the hair, curling his index finger around it thoughtfully.

"I love you" he breathed, his eyes sparkling in a peculiar way, the way they did when he talked about the Hallows and the future.

I almost scoffed at him, but that look silenced me. Could he possibly love me also?

"You don't mean that..." I ventured, watching him frown at me, "I do..."

"I think you are in lust with me."

He kissed me, and said, "_Nein_, it is more than that now. I will **prove** it to you!" I had to laugh at that, but he was off my chest, and near the window and I sat up, looking confused. "How?" He leaned in to kiss me slowly, then he was gone, a hollow snap all that followed him.

I lay back again, doubly confused by today. It has been the best birthday I had ever had, just spending the day with him, in love without a care in the world. That was bliss. I pressed the cool back of my hand to my eyes, and drifted to sleep.

_**-Gellert-**_

Albus was wondering, but I could not have him guess what I was about to do. I had found proof, definite proof of where the Elder Wand lay. I'd concealed the knowledge for days now, for this purpose. I was currently behind the shop of Gregorovich, and it was already dark, past midnight now, and the building was silent. Several days ago I had stashed a broom here, and had planned my way in.

Foolishly, Gregorovich did not secure his windows, perhaps in concession to the summer heat, but they were open and unwarded. Though these were on the second floor, they led directly into his workshop. Under glass, I could see what I sought, what could only be the Elder wand, encased under a glass and gold dome, upon a red velvet pillow. I let my eyes adjust to the gloom, not wanting to bring attention to myself with a light spell, lest I be discovered before I had my hands around it.

I had done other research, and found that the Gregorovich that currently held this wand was the son of the man in the diary, and did not know what he possessed. He merely thought the wand as something that was valuable to his father, and had kept it in memory of him, who had died some years ago, of natural causes. It was unprotected, and the glass and gold was dusty when I touched it carefully, wary of some lingering ward, but the dome came silently up and I set it aside. I took the wand from its pillow, and heard a loud crack. _Scheiße!_ I had stepped on a piece of lathe, and I could hear footsteps now.

I danced back to the window, smiling gleefully at the confused, portly man as I sat on the windowsill, the light from his wand bathing me in light. Before he could retaliate, I twirled the Elder Wand and stunned him, crowing with laugher as I flipped backwards onto the waiting broom, my black robes like wings as I cheered jubilantly. I flew into the cloudy sky, the damp gloom concealing my path, and picked a place some miles from the shop, in the dark of a thick forest to apparate back to Godric's Hollow.

Still bubbling with jubilation at how smoothly this had went, I lit my own wand with a simple spell to examine the wand anyway, to be doubly sure. Up close, there was no doubt to the seeker, though the gold ring around the base was tarnished, it bore the dark etching of the triangle, circle and line through it all, the Hallows symbol. I held it to me and pondered what I was about to do. I had realized, in the two months that we had known each other, that Albus was everything to me. If I was to do this, to change the world, if **we** were to change the world, I needed him in so many ways.

I climbed back into the window, silent as I had been scarcer than an hour earlier. Albus, the sweet thing, was sleeping, glasses still upon his face, his hand upon them. I climbed in beside him, and he stirred, looking sleepily up at me as I grinned down at him. I set my wand on the table, still lit, and looked down at him, a lump in my throat as I gathered up the courage to say what I needed to.

"I gathered a proof of my love for you..." he said nothing, but his eyes were curious yet wary.

I dropped the elder wand onto his chest and he startled, picking it up with slow, sleepy confusion. When his eyes found the symbol he uttered a little cry, "This...this is..."

"This is **the** wand, **our** wand...and..." I fought to say it, to put to words how I felt. He still held the wand, and I held the hand that held it. "Will you marry me Albus?"

_**-Albus-**_

Marry him? I wanted nothing better, in that moment there was no hesitation. I blinked back tears, "Yes...yes I will"

Gellert uttered a curious sound, holding me closely and tightly to him as he kissed me fervently. I felt a tingle and a shower of sparks, and when we parted I stared at it. Had he...I raised the wand, looking at it speculatively, "Gellert..."

"It is yours now. I love you."

"I love you too Gellert, more than I can say..."

* * *

_**Note:**_ This ran on one of my theories about how canon!Albus (of which is this is NOT) managed to defeat Gellert in the 1945 duel. One of the theories is that Gellert was never the TRUE master of the wand, Albus was. This is an alternate reality of how that might have come to be.


	12. Nothing All At Once

**Author's Note:** You know where this is going.

**Nothing All At Once**

_**-Albus-**_

The next day, I was dressed in my normal clothing, and we were walking towards my house in the morning sunlight, jubilant and very much in love. Gellert was carrying the wand right now, as I had no room for it in my pockets and did not want to replace my old wand just yet. We agreed it should be carried with us at all times, to prevent it falling into the wrong hands. We were just inside my house, and Gellert held me closely to him, murmuring something sweet to me, my back to the hallway. I heard footsteps behind us, and I tensed.

"So you're finally home! With your crazy German boyfriend!" Aberforth spit, and I could not bear to turn and look at him, clinging tighter to Gellert. Gellert tensed against me, his grip tighter upon me.

"Look at me you cowardly bastard!" I cried out as a curse struck me from behind and I crumbled to the floor as pain shot through my spine.

"You can't stop us. Go back to your goats and your sister! I won't let you get between our vision...between _us!_" Gellert snarled.

"You can't! He can't just abandon his responsibilities here!" Aberforth's wand was out, pointed at Gellert's head. "I'll stop you."

"Foolish! Try to stop me! I will take what is mine!" And Gellert's wand pointed at me. "_Imperio._"

_No, no...no...please..._I tried to fight the curse as Gellert bid me to my knees, my throat filled with cotton as I strained to speak, to fight him off, _anything_ _but this!_

A hex flew by my head, missing Gellert and striking a piece of china behind him, causing it to explode into a million pieces with a deafening crash. _"I will stop you!_" Aberforth screamed, repeating himself and throwing another hex, but was silenced by Gellert's next spell, "_Crucio_"

I tore through the feeling of pleasant gauze enough to plead with Gellert to stop, "Please...hurt me instead, don't hurt them! Please!" _Crucio him then in my stead. _Gellert commanded, and I fought him tooth and nail and ground out, "No...don't want..to...please don't make me...Gellert...please..." With the last of my mental strength I struggled free of the curse, scrambling to my feet and leveling my wand at Gellert.

"I thought you were better than this!" I leveled a _stupify_ his way, but he shielded himself from it, Aberforth forgotten for the moment. As we circled each other, the betrayal I felt burned like phoenix fire. But before either of us could level another spell, I hear another _stupify_, and Gellert leans back half a step. The full force of the spell hits me and I'm flung against the fireplace. I hit my head so hard against the brick that I see stars, and lay dazed with my back to the room, unable to move momentarily as waves of pain and nausea wash over me.

I hear several other spells yelled out, but my mind cannot grasp what they are through the film of red in my mind. I struggle to rise, pulling myself rather unsteadily to my feet, and turn to level a stunning spell at them, the thought of who I hit irrelevant at that moment. All I saw in that moment through the dust was a blur of blond and red hair...and heard three curses yelled out at that precise moment.

_Stupify!_

_Petrificus Totalus!_

_Locomotor Mortis!_

Ariana's scream was silenced abruptly, a snarl of energy pulsing out from her, knocking us all to the ground, and I succumb to unconsciousness.

When I came to, Gellert was standing over me and I could hear Aberforth crying. He was holding my lifeless sister..._no it couldn't be. _

"She's dead Albus." The coldness in Gellert's voice sent a shard of fury into my heart, and I raised my wand to his neck.

"You did this! You killed my sister!" All I could see was red hot fury, wasted time, lost promises, everything we had sacrificed, gone. Gellert was saying something pacifying, but I could not hear him over my own fury, backing him against the door.

"Albus you don't..._bitte..._" I shot a bolt of energy against the door, missing his head by inches quite intentionally, the shatter of the beautiful stained glass fueling my anger.

"Get out. I should have known you would be the end of me!"

"Albus..." I shot another searing bolt of energy, searing a hole in the wood.

"Get out! I never want to see you again!"

_**-Gellert-**_

Albus shoved me with more strength than I thought he had onto the dirt of the walkway and slammed the door, bits of coloured glass showering my feet. For a moment I just sat there in shock, unable to move as I heard Albus' wail from inside. A jolt of pain drew me out of the shock, and I saw that the last ball of energy he'd thrown at me had not missed me, a swath of burned flesh upon my upper arm throbbed painfully and I scrambled to my feet. No, I couldn't go back in, he'd kill me for sure.

My arm was not the only thing that hurt, my heart felt like the shattered glass of his front door, lodged painfully in my chest, jolts of fresh pain with every beat of it. I made my way back to Frau Bagshot's house, and she was at my side, babbling over my arm and inquiring of what happened at Albus' house. I couldn't answer her, I couldn't stay here, I didn't even want to think about here. In a choked whisper I asked her for a portkey to see my sister, and though she looked at me with concern, she did so. Despair washed over me as I felt the jolt and was transported away.


	13. What Defines A Man

**Author's Note:** Oh look an OC! Will Gellert make the right choice?

**What Defines a Man**

_**-Heidi Grindelwald-**_

My brother was the last person I thought I would see on the balcony outside my Berlin flat in the middle of the day. Gellert looked terrible, and it took several tries before I could pry anything resembling a sentence from him. I managed to glean that he had met someone in England, and that said person was a boy. _Naturlich._ I scoffed inwardly at my father's belief that anything could change my brother's heart or body when it came to this. I was the only person that he felt he could trust, and I knew that if he was here something terrible had happened, he was normally very independent.

We had always been close, despite the fact I was 3 years older than he. We had always been there for each other, through the hardest and happiest times. Gellert had supported me when I announced I wanted to go to Berlin and study healing—alone. An independent woman in a time when neither wizard nor Muggle tolerated it to this extent. I had been there when Gellert was expelled from Durmstrang, though he did not know that it was I our father argued with on that day. Gellert had sent me letters from Durmstrang, but they had stopped quite suddenly when he was sent to England 'for his own good' in my father's words.

Gellert was sullenly curled upon my couch, his sobs quieted, and I thought for a moment he might be sleeping, but he sighed heavily.

"Gellert..." I'd never seen him like this, all of that bubbling, manic energy depleted, defeated.

"I love him Heidi...and he hates me now! It...it wasn't my fault!" he covered his face with his hands, tears sliding between his fingers.

"What wasn't your fault?" I was still not clear on what had happened. "What happened Gellert? Tell me!

" "She's dead...I...I...I didn't...I didn't...! I..." He looked at me with wide, glassy eyes, "I didn't mean to, I wasn't looking...I...she..."

I sat by him and rubbed his back, "Who Gellert?"

"His...his sister..." I didn't understand, but I didn't want to push him either.

"What happened? Did you fight over her?" I doubted this, but asked anyway.

Gellert laughed humourlessly, "No...if it were only that..." He shuddered, sucking in a breath, "I think...I think...I...killed her..." I stiffened and he looked at me, "I didn't mean to...it was an accident..." Haltingly, he filled me in on the last two months, of his boyfriend's sister's problems, and of how he felt for Albus, and what had brought him here. I busied my hands with dressing his wound, his voice strained in places from the pain of the burn. "I love him Heidi...he's **everything** to me..."

"Then you have an important decision to make. If he means everything that you say he does, then you must run back to him"

"But..."

"You have to take the risk! If you do not, you will regret the loss of him your entire life!" I stood, stretching my legs and smoothing out my dress and robes, "I must go to work now, and you have to decide how much he means to you."


	14. Bleak Picture of There

**Bleak Picture of There**

_**-Albus-**_

We did not speak as I draped a sheet over our sister's lifeless body, raising my wand and restoring the room with as much calm as I could muster through my tears. Now that Gellert was gone, I felt his absence keenly, and it felt between these I had no heart left at all. Ms. Bagshot appeared, letting herself in through the broken door. Gellert was not with her, and I couldn't bring myself to ask about him. I could not even be angry. It was pointless, this...everything. What had I been fighting for? Had it been worth it?

The Aurors appeared not much later, asking questions, and Aberforth and I made up some bollocks story about her health, and how it was sudden for us, a heart attack perhaps. The shock wave that was her last act had erased the last spell on our wands, so they were left with no choice but to chalk it up as a natural occurrence. Nobody asked me about the broken door, and I learned later that Ms. Bagshot had repaired it on her way in.

It was merely a few hours before a coffin was procured, and carried out of our house, towards the chapel by the graveyard, the weather too hot to delay a burial. I felt nothing but a massive hole where my heart should be, blackness where the light should be, I was untouched by the too bright, cheery summer day, its song falling upon deaf ears. It was too beautiful a day to have a funeral...

I squinted into the dimness of the chapel, sitting in the front row, and hoping that I would not be called upon to speak...I wasn't sure I was even capable any more. Could anything be right again? I looked around, looking for Gellert, for someone to hold me, to tell me it was going to be okay. It was going to be okay wasn't it? Wasn't it?

When I came to pay my last respects, Aberforth was at my side also. He did not speak to me, tears freely streaming down his face as he touched her cheek. He looked at me, my dry eyes, my expressionless face...Something snapped, and I saw black and red, searing pain, emptiness. The hot gush of blood over my fingers as I lay crumpled at the base of the coffin, Aberforth's boots savagely kicking at me.

There were raised voices, but I could not make them out, I could not hear over the roar of blood, the demons in my head. Escape. I had to escape. I scrambled to my feet, and someone tried to grab me, and I shoved them off, running out into the blinding sunlight. Anywhere but here, anywhere but here, anything but this...I turned savagely in a half circle and apparated.

I landed in the dirt, somewhere. I screamed then, frustrated I was not left to the ether to die. _I would run, I would run, Run. Where?_ My nose throbbed, and I could taste copper and salt. Was there another taste? Another existence?

_ Must run, must escape this. I have failed. Failed! I should not be allowed to exist, I should be dead, dead like her. Gellert doesn't want me, my brother doesn't want me. I will run away from them, away from this, into oblivion maybe, could I do that?_

I stumbled into the bright walkway, and heard gasps as I started to run, blood still dripping down my face. Were they gasping at me? Where was I? Air burned my lungs, and I kept running, there was nothing but running, nothing but the hot air on my tongue, the sand in my throat, the hole in my soul. I was nothing...


	15. Run, Gellert, Run!

**Author's Note:** This is where it starts to really divert from Things That Happened In Canon (tm). There were originally three endings to this chapter, good, bad, and canon. Instead of its own fic, it gets a chapter here.

**Run, Gellert, Run**

_** -Gellert-**_

I sat in the living room of my sister's flat for a long time. It seemed impossible that Albus would come back to me, and I swallowed morosely, suddenly very very lonely. Tears pricked my eyes, and I hugged my knees, staring into space for a while. I stood after a while, wandering out onto the balcony, then back inside, mindlessly pacing. Finally I went outside, climbed the stairs to the roof, and stood among the cold rain, looking up at the sky. Let it rain. Nobody could see me crying here.

I hugged myself and felt something hard in my left pocket, and sobbed when I pulled out the Elder Wand. I'd forgotten that he had handed it to me to hold while he was dressing. I'd **forgotten** about it. About my promise to him.

I stared at the wand, the most powerful wand in the world if we were right. And it was his, it was **his**, not mine, like my heart was his. My heart was no longer mine anymore. I watched raindrops slide down the worn wood, mixing with my own salty tears. No, it couldn't end like this. Heidi was right about that. I had to have him back, if I didn't **try** I would regret it. I half turned, apparating with a loud crack.

I emerged in the dirt outside Albus' house, heedless of the mixed nature of the town, banging on the door with all my might, when an old woman tapped me on the shoulder and pointed in the direction of the chapel. So soon? I took off at a run, desperate to catch him, to say I was **sorry, **I couldn't fix it, but I could stay. _Bitte Albus, bitte..._ I skidded across the cobblestones, bracing myself on the door frame and narrowly missing an older couple as they exited. "_Ah...enschuldigung! Bitte, ich..._"

They were staring at me, and then the man replied in perfect _Deutsch_, "_Englisch bitte..._" I whimpered, trying to organize the whirling of my thoughts and translate what I was thinking into English. "Ah...Albus...where?" was all I could manage.

"He isn't here, he disappeared. We were about to go find him. He must not have went far."

I saw the drops of blood at my feet, almost covered by the dirt my abrupt stop had kicked up, a half circle gouged into the dirt not far from the path."I think he went farther than you think! What happened?"

"His brother..."

I growled, gritting my teeth, my revenge for this, for hurting Albus would have to come later, we were already walking towards his home at a brisk pace. "He's not home." I ground out.

"How do you know?"

I swallowed a frustrated scream, gesturing towards the chapel and the bloodied half circle in the dirt."Albus left us a mark of apparation in the dirt. He wouldn't apparate into his own house. He's went somewhere else"

"Where?" the woman asked, and I thought of our trip to Berlin last weekend, and London just the day before (had it really been only a day?) and thought that he may have went to Berlin, if his only wish was to go as far from **here** as possible. It would have been the only place that he would be able to think of on short notice.

I offered my arm, "Berlin, it has to be. He'd go as far as possible from here, and we were there just a few days ago." The woman raised her eyebrows at me, maybe realizing for the first time who I was, and did not take my arm.

"We will go separately, we have been to Berlin before. Split, we may have a chance of finding him before he does something to attract Muggle attention." I didn't spare them another thought, disappearing again right there in the middle of the street. I had no time to think of whether we were seen, only finding Albus on my mind.

I emerged at the very same alley that we had appeared in yesterday, looking around for any sign of his passage, stomach lurching when I saw the smear of blood on the brick, in the shape of fingers, sliding across it. I looked left and right, looking for anything that could have an indicator of his passage. Nothing, it was raining here, and though the alley was dry, the _straße_ was not, and I stood there, at a loss at which way to go, watching people shuffle by.

A pair of ladies passed close to me, and I heard snippets of their conversation over the rain "It was awful..."

"Bloody? Really? In the middle of Berlin?"

"He was dressed so strangely...and bloody..."

I grabbed one of their shoulders, and their startled, indignant cry drew stares from passers by. "Do you know which way he went?!" They stared at my soaked visage and one of them numbly pointed to the left. "_Danke!_" I yelled behind me as I tore past them, the sound of my footsteps in the mud and water echoing off of the cobbled path.

A bicycle rider pushed me out of the way as I came too close to the bike path, but I couldn't pay him any mind, just running, occasionally pulling someone aside and asking if they'd seen anything suspicious as I ran, darting in the directions they pointed, a worrying amount of people knowing what I was speaking of. I must have looked just as suspicious, most of them mutely pointing the way and letting me push past them.

I heard a scream, far ahead of me echo off of the brick and cobblestone, and many people around me cast around for the source of it. My lungs burned, my ribs aching and I gasped for breath as I ran, unwilling to stop, lest I be too late. The scream came again, louder, closer, and I could see the flicker of light flashing across the puddles in the gloom. _Magic, no!_ I had to get there before someone else did.

Pushing myself the last few meters, I turned the corner to see a crumpled shape in the narrow alley, soaked as I was, the unmistakable copper hair matted and tangled, curling in the now light mist that fell. He was wearing the blue robes from earlier, torn and I saw a trail of blood snaking into the puddle of water he knelt in, shaking and sobbing.

"Albus!" It was out of my mouth before I could stop myself, and I closed the distance between us, his blank, confused eyes worried me as I held him to me. Limply, he allowed me to hold him, though he did not return the embrace, the fight in him gone. We knelt in the summer rain like that for a long time, and he shook in my arms, wracked with sobs, the blood and mud he was caked with seeping into my clothes.

Albus' face was ruined, the cartilage in his nose shattered and bleeding profusely, a lurid spray of bruises and blood, the source of the bloody descriptions of his passage. His hair snaked wetly against his skin, the copper strands tangled and caked with blood and mud, snarled into matted balls in other places. He looked like he had been attacked, his robes were little more than shreds around his thin body, wide pieces of it ripped out, and I saw blood under his fingernails and he still held strips of the fine fabric in one hand. I realized he'd done this to himself.

"Albus...we need to get up, we need to go..."

"I can't...let me die here..."

"Albus!" I released him, and he slipped bonelessly from my arms onto the stone. His eyes were blank and glassy, unseeing. He was **gone** right now, and I couldn't think, there was no time, I could hear heavy footsteps on the street beyond, getting closer and closer. No choice, I levelled a stunning spell at him, hoping that he would still be in once piece when we got to safety, gathered him in my arms and apparated away.


	16. Once, When We Were Adults

**Author's Note: ** Of all the flaws a dark lord could have...

**Once, When We were Adults**

_**-Gellert-**_

My sister was frowning at me, looking at the crumpled form of Albus in my arms. His face was still bloody, smeared with mud, and I was covered likewise in it. I had apparated away as quickly as possible, before the Aurors or **worse, **_Polizei, _found us. No time to fix Albus' broken nose, and I hoped Heidi could fix it.

"I heard about him all the way from the hospital! They were going on about a crazy man with a bloodied face..."

"He's not crazy Heidi!"

"I know Gellert, but..."

"We don't have anywhere..."

"I'm not turning you away, I just...Lay him down, I need to look at his face."

Heidi stood over Albus, who was unconscious, and I hoped he would stay so for a while longer. I did not want to have to fight him again. It was hard enough to see him this way, and I knew he would want to go home. He can't go home now, if my sister is right, and they're looking for him, he will be imprisoned for sure...I can't lose him again, so I will have to keep him here for now.

The acidic, lemon-like scent of dittany wafted to my nose, and I saw Heidi applying it to his minor wounds, a drop of it sealing a cut with a menacing sizzling sound. My gorge rose and I had to step away, swallowing down bile. This was why Heidi was the healer, I didn't have the stomach for it, the very smell of blood caused nausea to wash over me. Even though I was now out of earshot, and my back was turned to her work, I could still see the red flicker on the mid afternoon gloom of the room. "I am done. You can look now."

I turned, returning to the couch and sighing a little to see that Albus' face was fixed perfectly, and my sister had cleaned the remaining dirt from his face. His hair was still a nest of copper behind him, caked here and there with smears of dirt. I sat on the edge of the sofa and brushed a strand back from his face, frowning. "Can you prepare a sleeping draught?"

"You think he will fight you don't you?"

"Yes. We can't let him leave here now, until they stop looking for him."

"Yes yes, I will prepare one..." She disappeared into the kitchen, and I sat by him for a long time, content for now to listen to the clink of bottles and shuffling of various bags.

Heidi handed me the steaming cup, and I gathered Albus up into a sitting position, the tiniest azure slivers appearing as he woke, slowly. "Drink this _mein liebe, _you are hurt and need to rest..."

"Gellert...?" his voice trailed off weakly, copper lashes brushing his cheeks again.

"Rest..." To my surprise, he dutifully sipped at the draught, scrunching up his nose in disgust at the taste. His eyes did not open again, and I felt him relax in my arms. I dug my wand out of the inner pocket of my coat and widened the sofa, pausing as I thought of the location of things I needed, a blanket, the soft _federbett, _and many many pillows.

I paused, and the mass of soft bedding fell to the floor as I lost my concentration. I was still dressed in my dirty clothing...I looked around suddenly, and realized with a start that Heidi was nowhere in sight. Not that I really had a huge problem with disrobing in front of her, it never had been an issue between us, but I knew that Albus would, but he was asleep, and **dirty**.

I levitated him up, stripping off the blood soaked robes, I couldn't stand the smell of it, that sickly coppery, meaty smell stung my nose and I swallowed hard again and again, fighting down the waves of nausea and tasting the burn of bile at the back of my throat. Tossing them as far as I could from our resting place, I was tempted to **burn** them but I was certain that Albus would be angry with me. I shook my head, a half smile on my face, they were beyond repair I thought, but he would still be upset because they were his favourite.

Heidi appeared at my side again, silently handing me a bowl of steaming water and a soft cloth. Ah, that is where she had gone. She barely spared Albus more than a look, wandering into her room and shutting the door quietly behind her. I sighed, inhaling the piny scent of the water, grateful for the scent of it, my sister's concession to my queasiness around blood. I cleaned the blood and some of the dirt that lingered on his body, sliding the scented cloth along his lean body. My concentration wavered slightly, and I had to focus on the lingering scent of blood in the air to quell my body's response to his nudity. I carefully lifted his head, and washed the dirt from his hair with a separate bowl, gently tugging the snarls through my fingers until it was soft and silky again, drying it with a heated towel. I ran a brush through it until it shined, and tying it with a stray ribbon.

I ran my fingertips along the light goosebumps on his arms, divesting myself of my own clothing and kicking the filthy pile towards where I had thrown Albus' clothing. Absentmindedly I cleaned the dirt from my body, using a subtle drying spell instead of bothering with the towel. I pushed the bowl of water onto the coffee table and sized up the sofa. It was small, but I transfigured it wider, not wanting to move Albus for the moment.

The bedding fluffed itself around him, and I held his head up for a pillow to snuggle there, watching the rest settle themselves in various places on the sofa. The _federbett_ was next, soft and warmed with the same spell I had used to dry myself. Carefully, I curled up behind Albus, pressing my lips to his freckled shoulders and holding him close, blackness stealing over me quickly.


	17. A Thousand Steps to Home

**Author's Note:** Gellert is an asshole, but he's also 16 and human. Albus and certain members of his family are the only people he_ likes. _I could also say volumes about Gellert's family, but you're getting the short version. I do not buy the idea that he was born a sociopath, as a certain musical might say "wickedness was thrust [upon him]". Keep that in mind please.

**A Thousand Steps to Home**

_** -Gellert-**_

It had been a week since we had come here, and Albus was still broken physically and mentally. He was asleep now, snuggled into the crook of my arm as I stared at motes of dust in the morning sun streaming in from the kitchen windows. There was a knock on the door, and my sister yelled something from her room, and I pulled the blanket over my head. It was too early for visitors!

Heidi emerged among more insistent knocking, and a dreaded voice behind it. _Unsere Mutter. _I groaned and wished I could disappear, but as it was I was naked, curled against my boyfriend as I was nearly every morning now. I heard them talking and Heidi had the nerve to pull the blanket off my head and announce that she was here, as if I didn't already **know**. I batted at her hand, and Albus stirred restlessly against me. I covered his head in a lame attempt at hiding him, though my mother was of course looking directly at him.

"That is him is it not?"

"Who mother...?" I knew the answer, mothers knew **everything** somehow.

"That is the boy they were talking about, the one running about Berlin, bloody, terrorizing citizens!"

"Mother! He wasn't terrorizing anyone!"

"Who runs about a city bleeding?"

"Let me explain..." She looked at me expectantly, sitting across from us in a fluffy chair that she had drawn up with her wand. I explained what had happened with his sister (leaving out the part that I might possibly have been the one to kill her...), and the information I'd gathered when I looked for him at the funeral. She was silent for a long time, her pretty face blank of any emotion, that sort of mom thing where all you can do is sit and wait till the verdict is given.

I hissed out a breath when she smiled. Albus of course chose that moment to sleepily blink up at me, and my heart skipped giddily. I smoothed the soft, slightly tangled hair from his face, then reached around him to pull the bedding more securely around us. Albus tensed and I felt him hug me closer, his fingers digging into my back firmly. I addressed my mother, "So you won't tell father?"

"No. I understand now."

Albus murmured quietly against my chest, "You're talking about me aren't you?"

I blinked down at him, realizing we'd been talking in _Deutsch_ and he did not understand it well. "Yes _mein liebe_, _es ist okay._"

"We're naked..." I chuckled and held him closer to me, "Yes, we are"

I said in English, and watched my mother's blonde eyebrows shoot up. I huffed at her reaction and petted Albus' hair, placing a kiss on his forehead. "Why mother?" I asked in _Deutsch_, genuinely curious.

"Believe it or not, your father does not have the power to cast you from the family. Our family's wealth and pure blood comes from my own family, not that of your father."

Heidi drew up a chair, a sensible wooden one with cushions on, and sat down by our heads, translating what was said into flawless English for Albus. "Heidi, I can understand her want to get away, as our own situation is because of your father, and his foolish proposal to me. In a bid for a purer blood for his dead family line, he leveraged the waning wealth of his family and made my family an offer that they could not refuse. It is not often that the groom to be offers his own wealth to a family, just for the privilege. It was not the best choice my family would have made for me, but in the end I ended up there. But in essence, it means that your father belongs to my family, in a way that a husband is seldom indebted to his wife. My word on this will stand that you will not be cast from the family."

She rose and approached us, and Albus turned to look at her, the bedding cinched to his chin, a bright red blush colouring his cheeks. "Tell him, that I will give him the benefit of the doubt for now. You deserve more than just an arranged marriage and a lifetime of regret. Both of you do."

She looked pointedly at Heidi, who turned her head away with a smile. "Mother..."

She smiled, gathering her coat, waving her wand at her chair, which popped out of existence. "Don't waste it. Your father may never come around, but I love you." She touched a strand of Albus' hair, and he strained to look at her and still maintain his dignity. "Good luck." She hugged Heidi and then disappeared without much of a sound, though the silence that followed her was profound.


	18. Winter Never Leaves

**Author's Note:** I am aware that the origin of Marzipan is contested, let Heidi have her small conceit ;)

**Winter Never Leaves**

_**-Albus-**_

It had been weeks. Months maybe, I was having a hard time keeping track any more. My days were as gray as the landscape outside the window was now, devoid of life or colour. My failure was an itchy woolen blanket over my head, and I could barely breath for it, yet it scratched at me still, reminding me of where I'd went wrong. Gellert was gone, Heidi was gone, I did not know where either of them spent their days. At night their voices were low around me, speaking in their native language in hushed tones. About me no doubt, though I could not summon up enough concern to care.

It had been worse, I had been nearly catatonic when I had first arrived here. And not because of the fowl sleeping draughts they had kept me under either. It had not taken them long to come to the conclusion that they needed to remove the memory that plagued me. I had been drugged, and still had fought them tooth and nail for it, but lost ultimately, the pain of it was worse than anything, like a thousand needles scraping themselves across my flesh, thousands of open wounds in my head. I remembered Gellert's crazed eyes as he fought with Heidi over the bottle, and the sickening shatter of it against the wall, lost forever to me. Did I mis-remember him sobbing later, when he thought I was asleep?

They always left food for me, though I seldom ate it, spending most of my days curled upon the sofa, or wandering the rooms of their tiny flat in a daze. I was not allowed outside, and they had taken my wand and any clothing that might have been suitable for going outside as it became colder. The leaves had fallen without my notice. It was bleak and gray outside now, a faint glaze of snow dusting each surface, not enough to be pretty, but enough to remind everyone that it was cold. I had no desire to go outside. I wondered if it was close to the holidays, and quickly pushed the thought away, a familiar lurch of hopeless grief washing over me.

The tears fell thickly, and I did not bother to wipe them away. What was the point anyway? I heard the door open, and Heidi brushing off her robes with more fluttering movements than Gellert would have. I did not turn to her when she walked into the kitchen, setting down an enormous, overflowing basket full of food and drink with a most unladylike grunt. She was pleasant enough, an independent woman in a man's world, and the small part of me that still lived admired her for having the strength. Her hair was tied back and braided in a short, simple braid, her winged healer's hat perched crookedly upon her brow. Heidi usually left me alone, but today she stood in front of the sofa and pulled me to my feet.

"It is a special day tomorrow, I want you to help me with it. It will be good for you to do something." She tugged at my hands and led me to the kitchen, a stool and a bowl on the counter top. Directing me to the sink, she gave me a bit of soap to wash my hands with, then sat me in the nearest stool. She waved her wand at a bubbling pot on the stove, and poured almonds from a bag into it, letting them sit as she removed it for a minute or two. Draining them, she divided them into two bowls, one in front of her stool, the other in front of mine. I stared at the almonds, distracted and confused by them.

"Look at me for a moment Albus." She was holding one of the almonds between her fingers, and she pressed it firmly between them, the skin wrinkling like leather and sliding off of the nut. She indicated I should try, and I attempted, but it was too rough at first, and I settled for peeling the skin off with my fingernails. I tried again and again, until I found a way of gripping them that worked for most of the nuts. We silently shucked them, and I found it was strangely comforting to do, though I was still not sure what we were going to do with them all.

"We are making Marzipan." she said, and I cast about in my head, trying to figure out if I'd ever had anything like it, but came up blank.

"Is it a sweet?" I ventured, hoping very much it was, the prospect of sweets cheering me like nothing had recently.

"Yes, it is a German sweet, made from almonds, sugar, and vanilla." She took my finished bowl of skinned almonds from me and made the small mortar large as the opening of a cauldron, and poured them in, grinding them with a pestle big around as her arm. After a while of watching, I offered to help, though between us it took us a while to grind the almonds into the fine powder that Heidi said would make the best marzipan.

Reaching to the highest shelf, on the toes of her leather soled feet, she brought down a bag of confectioner's sugar, pouring it into a cup and indicating I should mix it with my hands, which I did. She broke two eggs over my hands and I shuddered a little, disliking the slimy slide of them on my skin. More sugar, until it was a thick, pale paste, and the stickiness of it had subsided into something much easier to work with. I wondered again if it were near the holidays, and asked her if it was.

"No, it is my brother's birthday today, and he **loves **marzipan!" I winced, realizing I had no idea what the date was, and that I was so mired in my own grief that I had lost touch with everyone around me.

"Gellert's birthday? But I don't..."

She smiled at me, indicating the marzipan that I was currently wrist deep into, "He will think this is the best thing you can do, trust me. Our mother only made it on his birthday every year, and I am sure he misses it sorely, as he spent his birthdays at Durmstrang." I nodded, remembering craving lemon sweets when at Hogwarts, and not being able to get them until my summer birthday because they were a Muggle sweet.

We cut the marzipan into sections, and Heidi produced some powdered dyes to mix into them, until I had a rainbow of marzipan balls in front of me. We spent some time arranging them into silly shapes, and covertly eating some of the leftovers as we did. Half was set aside for Stollen Heidi told me, and we shaped part of it into balls and poured melted chocolate on them to make bonbons. I surprised her by knowing how to cook a lot of the things that we prepared for dinner, having known from feeding my own siblings. The thought was not as painful as it had been before, and I worked quickly and efficiently.

I heard the stomp of boots out on the balcony, and the slide of the door as Gellert let himself in, always coming in via the balcony and never the front door. He shook drops of half melted snow out of his curly hair, flecks of it sticking and melting among the golden curls. I caught a glimpse of the sullen expression that I assumed he had when he was not looking at me for a second, his eyes clouded with something I couldn't place. But he looked up at the now bright light from the kitchen, as night had fallen since we had started to cook, and we'd created our own light to work from.

The look I'd glimpsed was gone in an instant upon his eyes catching mine, and I knew that the face he'd put on for me before was fake, for I could see true joy in his amber eyes today. Gellert smiled in that wild way of his, eyes shining with delight, and I felt the heat in my cheeks as he looked me over. He bounded over to where we were, and enveloped me into a hug, babbling on in German until I held him at arm's length, my own eyes sparkling with true happiness again."English, Gellert, I can't speak your language yet!"

"_Ach, ja!_" He blushed, and visibly tried to compose his thoughts, schooling his features into a mock serious expression. "Albus! You are up! You are... **smiling**! You...smell like..." He sniffed, cocking his head this way and that, eyes closed for a moment. "Marzipan!" He turned around and round, spying the shapes we'd made, all sorts of fruits and vegetable shapes, and some more silly things as well. He stopped at the bonbons, snatching up one and popping it in his mouth before anyone could protest.

Gellert groaned, his eyes fluttering closed for an instant, then open again as he took in my rather rumpled clothing, covered rather heavily in streaks of sugar and almond paste, I was sure there was some in my hair even! I hadn't had time to properly wash my hands, and his robes now bore visible prints where I'd touched him. I reached for my wand almost on reflex then, and rumbled with frustration when I realized they still had it. Gellert was looking me over with a calculating expression, his amber eyes shining, "You **made** this!?"

I blushed hotly, it wasn't **that** special was it? "I...yes, with Heidi's help! I didn't do all of the work..."

Heidi was leaning against the window, laughing, "You did most of it! I just showed you what to do."

I supposed I resembled a ripe strawberry about now, my cheeks burned so fiercely. Gellert gathered me in his arms again, flour and all, reaching over to the sweets again and pressing one to my lips, the untempered chocolate melting on his fingers as he slipped it into my mouth. The slight bitterness of the chocolate contrasted with the rich sweetness of the marzipan quite well, and I found I liked it a lot.

Gellert was watching me intensely, his amber eyes shining with barely suppressed happiness, and something else, affection could it be? Heidi breezed past us, grabbing her plate on the way out and shutting the door to her room as quietly behind her as always. Gellert's lips met mine, a gentle kiss, then looking at me, waiting for me to pull away as I realized with a stab of guilt I'd been doing for months now.

I twined my sugary fingers into his hair, and he took my right hand, licking at the marzipan on my hands, then sucking on each in turn, the rasping of his tongue against the pads of my fingers sent waves of pleasure through me, his teeth lightly grazing upon the knuckles. By the time he had reached my thumb, I was quivering against him, hard and wanting for him. He untangled my other hand from his hair and did the same with my left hand, sucking suggestively on each digit in turn.

Gellert led me out of the kitchen, and I pulled the gray robes over my head, kicking them out of the way as we tumbled onto the sofa. I could feel laughter bubbling up from somewhere inside of me as I undressed him, straddling his middle as I did so. He ran his fingers through my hair that hung on either side of me, pausing to run the back of his hand over the scruffy beard I'd attained by not being allowed my wand or anything sharp to shave with. It grew slow enough that it was little more than a bit of copper stubble, a few longer strands curling at the tip of my chin.

Gellert wriggled under me, sliding his tight pants off and kicking them along with his high leather boots to the floor. He took our erections in hand, and I pressed against him, long held in hunger infusing me with lust. Rummaging with his other hand, he produced a small vial of oil from the folds of the pillows, and my cheeks tingled with heat. He poured some of the clear, scentless oil onto his fingers, sliding it between the digits to warm it before his fingers wrapped around our lengths. He groaned softly, and a fingernail grazed lightly around the head of my cock, and I stifled a cry of pleasure.

_**-Gellert-**_

Every little cry Albus made my cock twitch with anticipation as I slicked our lengths, teasing him with my fingernails in a way I learned he liked. My hands roved his body, eager to be able to touch him again with such abandon, so much forbidden fruit to me over this time. Trailing my slick fingers down his spine, my silent concern for his thinness forgotten when he keened softly, arching into the touch. Slowly, I teased over his narrow arse, and he gasped as my slick fingers teased over his entrance. Groaning softly he pressed his chest to mine, exposing himself to me with a soft whimper.

Sliding my slick fingers into his soft heat, a soft 'aah' from him as I slid in another finger, hips bucking up, oh I wanted him so much, to bury myself in his heat and have him ride me until we were both spent. My fingertips lightly grazed that nub and his ragged cry echoed off the walls, and I teased him with it, covertly sliding another finger into him as he bucked against my hand, hungry for more. I could feel my heartbeat in my groin, and I couldn't wait any longer, I had to him now, it was necessary to life.

I positioned my cock at his entrance, coaxing him back upright in a less awkward position, and he leaned back and sheathed himself around me with gasp, his chest heaving under my hands as he twitched around me. Everything I ever wanted was here, this heat enveloping my cock, his slender fingers twitching on my forearms as he held still, before I couldn't take it any longer, and my hands were over his hips, lifting him slowly and pressing him onto my cock. He tilted his head back, gasping for breath as he fell into a rhythm, all thought of his previous resistance to this position forgotten as he found a good angle, the air rent with his cries. I touched every part of him I could reach from my prone position, my eyes taking in his thin, naked form hungrily, starving for him.

A hard thrust and my hands were trembling again at his hips, fingers digging so hard they would bruise, but I couldn't care, his body shuddering above mine, his eyes were closed, and his hair stuck to the fine sheen of sweat of our exertions in wavy copper rivulets. I couldn't think, he was so tight and quivering above me, each thrust pierced him hard, and he moaned with increasingly loud moans, his body trembling with pleasure as my length grazed that sweet spot over and over, I could feel him tighten further around me, the pleasurable trembling and gasping breaths, and for a moment I wanted it to go on forever, but his blue eyes shot open and met mine and sent him tumbling off the edge of it, his hot seed spurting across my chest and stomach. My own climax came roughly on the tail of his, my seed shooting into his tight trembling arse, a string of curses from my own mouth as waves of pleasure shot through me and into him. He was gasping above me as we slowed, his whole body shaking, eyes closed again as he stilled, his breath ragged as mine as I closed my eyes, savouring the sweet afterglow of it. Truly, I had had him countless times before this, on every surface we could get away with in Frau Bagshot's home, but it always felt best when he was coming with me, the tightness of his coming like nothing else, nothing could compare.

Albus was looking at me through lidded eyes, the blue eyes just slivers as he smiled, and I gently lifted him from me, his soft cry of protest cut of by a kiss as I cleaned us, marvelling at the pearl of cum that had landed on my cheek before cleaning it with a wave of my wand, setting it back on the table beside the sofa with a clatter. He settled in beside me, his head on my chest, and I allowed myself that small ping of worry as I ran gentle hands down his knobbly spine. I would need to feed him much in the future, he was much too thin now.

"Thank you..." He murmured, and I swallowed a lump in my throat, what was there better than having him back with me, physically, and finally mentally? He said something else, but I did not catch it, and his breathing evened out as I caressed him gently, pulling the bedding over us against the nightly chill.

The last few months had been hard, amazingly so, to be bereft of him, and not able to fix what I had broken. Our last solution, only a few days ago, was to remove the memory of the duel, if you could even call it that, from his memory, so he could not dwell on the possibility of his landing a killing blow to his sister. I knew in my heart it was me, and the knowledge was a shard of glass in my heart every time I saw tears well up in his eyes. I hadn't meant it, I hadn't been **looking, **Aberforth chasing me around, his feeble magic annoying, but his fists much more of a concern for me then, the spell was already out before I saw her—and Albus' back had been turned. I had meant to stun him, meant to stun him, get his batty brother off of me, and take him from there. I never meant to kill her. I could never tell Albus this. _Never._

I couldn't mention the nights of agony I felt, knowing Albus blamed himself (and not rightfully **me** whose fault it really was) for her death. How he didn't get better, even after months and months of careful care by me and Heidi, how he got thinner and thinner, and we could not coax him to eat. I feared for his health and mind, and hoped that the latter was not permanently shattered. I wondered what Heidi had done to break him out of the haze and bring him back to me, but I was truly grateful for it.


	19. Miscalculated Advantage

**Miscalculated Advantage**

_** -Gellert-**_

I had been owling Nicholas Flamel for months, checking up on Albus' brother, though he hardly deserved it. The Dumbledore house had been seized, but I understood that the new owners had kept the remaining belongings of previous owners in the attic. Flamel had already arranged to take care of Aberforth, and I was glad that Albus would not have that burden now that he was finally starting to pull through from his grief.

But this would be the test, a large one to see if Albus would be able to come to terms with what had happened, and I hoped, move on. I grieved too, for seeing him like that was agony to me, to be helpless and know that I had caused it. I had destroyed that memory partly out of fear, fear that Albus would leave again, fear that the grief would crush me too, guilt because I hadn't meant it. A part of me felt that she was better off dead, and that was the very worst part.

Albus was dressed in new robes that I had bought for him, violet, for the very thought of blue for him caused tears to well up in his eyes. I had burned that robe after all, because the memory of it had antagonized him.

It was nice to see him in something other than the simple gray smock that he had worn before. The deep violet fabric was embroidered and dyed with abstract designs on the sleeves and up the buttoned front, some of the golden thread work glinting in the morning sunlight. He was smiling, and the sight made the sun that much more precious, _mein sonnenschein._ He sighed, bright blue eyes wide and glinting, "I'm ready..."

We appeared in front of the house, and I had told him what to expect, though the façade of the house was unchanged. Albus breathed a deep breath, and knocked, and I set a comforting hand on his hip, satisfied that he did not pull away. A young woman opened the door, her hair red as Albus', but cut quite short for a female of the time, above her shoulders in straight wedges. She appeared to be barely older than Albus, though also like him, the smattering of freckles across her nose made her look much younger. Another person, a man about the same age came to the door as well, wearing black work robes and glasses, his hair dark and cut short also for the time, in unruly spikes on his head, just long enough to fall in his eyes.

"We've been expecting you! Come in! Come in!" the man said, shaking our hands and ushering us inside. "I'm Octavius Potter, and this is my lovely wife Rose Potter."

"Albus Dumbledore, and this is Gellert Grindelwald. Thank you for doing this..." Albus said quietly.

"I am very sorry for your loss Mr. Dumbledore, it was the least we could do to keep your belongings here." He led us upstairs and tugged on a slat in the ceiling I had never noticed in my visits here, pulling down a rickety ladder that lead into darkness.

"I apologize, it is a bit dusty, but we did what we could." He ascended first, and we followed, each lighting our wands against the darkness until he lit an oil lamp, which he sent to float above us, filling the room with yellow light. Here, there were many boxes, all unmarked and placed haphazardly along the floor, though each box seemed to be in good shape, despite the untidy arrangement. "There are some of our boxes here too, over on this side, so I am sorry if one or two have gotten mixed into yours. Feel free to take your time sifting through it all. Mrs. Potter will be here all day if you need anything. I must be going off to work!" He left us with the boxes then, and I could hear him saying goodbye to his wife, heard the crack of him apparating away.

_**-Albus-**_

There were many boxes here, and I sat heavily on the floor, a cloud of dust curling on either side of me, and stared at it all. It was not very much, and I wondered if Aberforth had already been here to collect his things. _And Ariana's?_ I swallowed and tried not to think about it.

It took us most of the day to sift through it, and I found there was not a great deal that I wanted to take with me. Gellert was holding up a silvery cloak, "This is beautiful, why did you never wear this?" He put it on and I squeaked in fright, for everything covered by the cloak had suddenly disappeared!

"What? It is not so...oh!" he pulled it off his shoulders, holding up the silvery fabric thoughtfully and then putting it on again, "Amazing! What a lovely invisiblity cloak!"

A knock on wood, and I saw Mrs. Potter emerge through the attic hole, bearing tea and cookies. "I don't mean to intrude, but I thought you could go for some refreshment."

She laughed as Gellert removed the cloak from his head, floating there somewhat creepily. "You may have that if you like, it looks like you found one of our boxes by mistake. We have no use for such a thing, and it is old anyway."

I protested, for who did not have a use for something like this? "But couldn't you use it? I couldn't possibly..."

"No, I insist, it is the least I can give you for the inconvenience of what happened here."

Gellert handed it to me, and I ran the watery fabric across my palms, "Thank you Mrs. Potter." What could I say? It was a lovely gift, and I tucked it into my robes. I gestured to the one box that I had filled with the few possessions that I cared about, "We are finished here, do you want to keep the rest, or shall I dispose of it?"

She smiled, waving her hand dismissively over it, "We will find some use for it I'm sure, are you sure you want to abandon it?"

"Yes, this is my past, I would like to start anew."

"Very well!"

She slid the tray towards us, and we ate and drank in silence, and I made the box small, tucking it into a pocket, "We must be going, thank you for your hospitality, for everything."

"You're very welcome! Come visit us again sometime!"

"Perhaps I will, come Gellert, let us go."

We emerged back in Heidi's flat, and Gellert was bouncing with excitement.

"What has you so happy Gellert?"

"Albus...that cloak..." I dug it from the pocket, shaking it out, "What about it, it is just an invisibility cloak, nothing special...isn't it?"

I suddenly understood what he was excited about. "Could it be?"

"Albus, this is like no other cloak I have ever seen. At Durmstrang, I had seen many kinds, but none quite as **perfect** as this!"

_Two hallows...could we really do what Gellert has promised me?_

"It is it, I am sure of it! Albus..."

"I know, but the stone..." The one Hallow I wanted most, that I felt would have solved all of my problems, could bring my sister back...

"We will find it..."


	20. Rebellion In Small Amounts

**Author's Note:**This is where the jumps in time get bigger, and the consistency less as we diverge further into AU. This chapter is about 5-10 years after they acquire the Cloak. This is probably also where it will start to get OOC for a lot of people I think, but a lot of research did go into these chapters from now on, and I tried to get them as close to historic events as possible. You will see why in later chapters.

**Rebellion In Small Amounts **

_**-Gellert-**_

I marveled at how easy it was to gain a small army of followers. I wanted to start near my home in the Alps, carefully avoiding the small town where my parents resided, our base nothing more than an abandoned warehouse now, housing some of our followers in makeshift rooms, refugees, those for whom the drums of war were too much, and sought asylum. My country was faltering, and discontent was in the air, revolution or war, it was hard to tell.

Albus was always at my side, and though we never said what was clearly on everyone's tongue when they saw us together, it was always assumed anyway. I refused to keep it a secret, refused to hide and cower under my father's thinking that this love could be bad. Quite a few of our most loyal followers had joined simply for that reason, that we did not limit who they could love. Others joined out of blood lust, of the want for war and less of what we were fighting for, and I considered these to be the most expendable. If it came to war, and I could feel it would, we would need them.

We managed to take control of the Bavarian ministry before anyone really knew what was going on, and it was largely silent. With the help of those rallied from there, we went on to launch an attack on Munich's seat of government, and ultimately Bavaria as a whole, with the backing of the Muggles behind us. They did not want to be annexed into the Weimar Republic, and we raised an army to combat that, wizards and Muggles alike. I was not so keen on getting the Muggles on our side, but Albus made a convincing argument that without them, we would not have the manpower to fight.

The last few years have been filled with a significant amount of bloodshed, that I have largely tried to keep Albus away from. War isn't easy, and **everyone** wants our little corner of the world for their own. The Muggle technology, as much as I am loath to admit it, was integral to our success, along with Albus' unconventional idea to have a sharing of ideas between us. I thought this would backfire, but it hasn't yet, he had thought the rules of it through and it has advanced our quality of life quite a bit and made our military might nearly invincible.

Regardless, I tend to keep them at arm's distance, but Albus has become the country's golden boy. He handles all of the relations with Muggles, and I am able to keep my distance from them. Our most recent talk in Munich netted us the support of many, and I am hoping soon to move our safe haven to a much more suitable place than where we currently were. As much as I loathed seeing my parents, I missed Füssen, and I had an idea as to where I would like us to settle.

I arrived at the arranged meeting place, a small café in Füssen, where the Ludwig family liaison was to meet me. War was encroaching on us, and Albus and I had managed to create a large enough army that we had attracted the notice of those with money and power, who either wanted protection (such as was the case here, I felt), or to share in the power with us (who we habitually avoided if possible). I sat at the corner table, ordering a black coffee from the blonde waitress, and waiting.

"Blunderbuss" The code-word. The woman sat across from me, and I nodded curtly to her, cradling the coffee in my hands. She was about middle aged, with dark, wavy hair and rounded face that was common in the family. My great aunt Bathilda Bagshot has the hair, being more directly related than I am, but my family, being a distantly related branch family that split off around the Renaissance, have more typically Teutonic hair and features.

The waitress fluttered by, but the woman waved her away impatiently. "I understand you would be willing to grant our family protection from the coming difficulties?"

I looked at her over my cup, "Yes, but I want to know why you seek it first. Are you not without power of your own?"

Her jaw set on that mark, and I grinned inwardly.

"We are not the unified front that we were, and there is unrest in the family. You have shown to be one of the rising powers here, and we would show our support for you. I am aware of your family's relation to mine, and that also sways my decision. What are your terms?"

I nodded, setting my cup down, empty. "I want two things, your financial and military support, should we need it, and Neuschwanstein castle."

Her face was expressionless, and I was impressed by her resolve, I was playing a rather risky card with the last request. We sat in silence for a few minutes, and I waved the waitress over to refill my cup. I did not push, I had plans for that castle, and was not about to play my hand over a few minutes silence.

Finally, she spoke, "Alright. We accept your terms. The castle however, is your responsibility from now on, and I will not spare my staff to maintain it."

"Very well." I stood, and she stood as well. I left far too much money on the table for the waitress, and she followed me out into the midday summer sun. I watched her walk away until she disappeared into the crowd, and apparated away.

* * *

Our success in dismantling the Statute of Secrecy had hinged on Bavaria's independence at the time, and though we were constantly challenged by other, neighbouring Ministries in countries bordering our own, we had managed so far to maintain the peace here, while able to walk freely amongst Muggles I was going to make sure that we could have the freedom that Muggles enjoyed.

I had arrived at the building site for what would be a hospital, the construction was about half finished, scaffolding and bricks already in place, they were fitting windows today. Albus stood some distance away from it, pouring over blueprints with two other men, Muggles by the look of them, though I could not be for sure, the crew was a mixed crowd. Albus looked up at me when he heard me arrive, though it was more of habit than anticipation for my return, as he did not know where I went during the day, and I did not tell him. Much of the 'dirtier' work to be done was done by me, and Albus did not want to know what I had to do in the name of the Greater Good. That suited me just fine.

He came to me as always, dressed in work robes that were slate grey, unusual dress for him, but necessary with the construction.

We embraced, "How is the construction coming?"

"Slowly, we are still working out a good balance between the Muggle and magical builders. It is touch and go until we figure out what won't get anyone hurt." This was Albus' pet project, what he felt would turn the hearts and minds of many to our cause.

This hospital would be the first of its kind, a collaboration between Muggle and wizard for the health of all. The peaceful foundation to our rule, to show that we could work together on a peaceful project. Of course, on my project agenda was to build an army superior to both conventional Muggle and wizarding, that would make other nations tremble. Currently, we did not have the manpower to conquer, but what we had we would defend with tooth and nail. The official securing of the Ludwig family meant more than just a castle and money, it meant that this territory was now ours, and I no longer had to wonder if we would be torn apart from the inside by the royal class.

It would take months maybe to prepare the castle, but I had a little time. It was still spring, and I wanted to present the castle as a present, as it was originally intended. I had not ever met Ludwig II, but I had heard that the castle was dedicated to Wagner, and perhaps, he had been like us also. I'd never know for sure, but I did know one thing: My promise to Albus had gone unresolved thus far, and it had been a decade now that we have been together.

_**-Albus-**_

Gellert kissed me gently and apparated away, and I turned back to the blueprints that the architects, one Muggle, and one wizard, were poring over. We were designing such a structure with steel and brick, but infusing it with the type of magic that was common for wizarding structures to make it larger and more livable. An enterprising man had convinced me that electricity, as he called it would be important in the structure, something that wizarding homes did not have, partly out of a desire to remain separate from Muggles thus far.

This blueprint was a plan of how we would implement such a system. I wanted to stay out of the Muggle 'grid', to show we could manage this independently. So the architects and an engineer that was wandering around the site, taking measurements, were coming up with ways to power this building. About here it went much above my knowledge, even for a learned wizard, to comprehend, so I left them to it.

I knew, that Gellert probably did do unmentionable, horrible things in my absence. For the _Greater Good_ of course, but I could not stomach even the necessary violence to accomplish our goals. For that, we were often separate many a day, and the occasional night. I would not trade our progress to be with him more, but I missed him terribly.

Quickly, I was becoming the face of this new empire of ours, and when I was not overseeing this pet project of mine, I was often in München or Nuremberg to administrate the more 'boring' aspects of ruling. I did not mind it so much, boring though most of it was, a lot of it took a level of diplomacy that Gellert would forever lack. I believe that things would have went very differently had he not found me on that dark day, broken in the rain in an alley in Berlin. Our people called me his heart, and in a way I _was_, the cushioning that broke the blow of revolution.

I had learned German in concession to this task, and now spoke it fluently, though not with the accent that most Bavarians had here. They teased that I would always speak their language like an Englishman, though I had not lived in England in a decade. I thought some days I would forget English altogether, among endless strings of verbal battles in a language that I had acquired secondhand wore on me sometimes. All part of our agenda to integrate. It had been to conquer, but somehow I had convinced Gellert that we could integrate our societies, though some days I didn't know how we ever could. Muggle and wizarding cultures together, with wizards at the top, though I felt that a more equal exchange would yield better results. And so far, it has, though Gellert is still sceptical of my methods. I do not need him to change his mind, so long as I have the freedom to make it happen.


	21. The Place That We Called Home

**The Place that We Called Home**

_**-Gellert-**_

The last wall hangings were going up in the throne room, the last of the missing furniture and carpets in the rooms. It had taken much longer than I had anticipated to prepare the castle and to hand pick (and hand compulse) enough staff to maintain it. The staff, made partly of our most close officers and advisers, sworn to secrecy until I could present the castle, all living here in the myriad of empty rooms.

An army of house elves, all dressed in tiny suits and occasionally, dresses, some with more practical work clothing on, the dress of chefs, housekeepers, and other staff in miniature. All personally re-compulsed, though in a lot of cases it turned out to be unnecessary, and this was the hardest part, as they are all faithful to me and to Albus only, more than half of them coming from our own household on last minute notice. I think most of them would serve Albus without the compulsion, but I take no chances.

The tailoring of a set of dress robes, without Albus knowing about it, required some rather unique strategy, namely slipping sleeping potion into his tea and having the tailor take the measurements while he slept. A set of robes fit for any Bavarian king now hung in the dressing room for him. I wore the matching set, mine in black, set with rubies along the lush, gold embroidered hems, set in with a thread of spellthread, and other protective charms, stitched into the very fabric itself. The robes were of the finest velvet on the outside, and lined with fine red silk, with silk trousers and shirt underneath, completed with shining, polished, black leather boots, simple, compared to the rest of the outfit.

It was now late summer, and I cast a cooling charm as I stepped out into the summer heat, the air was shimmering along the heated stones, and I held my hand in front of my face to shield myself from the light, adjusting. A bright summers day, only the light fluff of clouds in the sky now, the afternoon sky blue in between them, and I smiled brightly for the first time in weeks. This would be perfect. A human staff member approached me to inform me that the preparations were all in place and he disappeared as fast as he had come. Good. An hour, for the rest of the guests that were not already in residence to arrive, and we would be ready. Just enough time for me to arrange for Albus' arrival.

_**-Albus-**_

I walked the halls of the new _Phönix Krankenhaus, _supervising the last touches of magical fixtures and Muggle technology to be placed here. In a week, maybe less, we would be fully ready to admit patients here, and do some real work for mankind. My familiar, Fawkes, was flying through the hallways, silently gliding on full-fledged gold-tipped crimson wings. His presence was common here, and nobody looked up as he glided overhead, but the initial reaction to him had prompted the hospital to be named for the bird. Many a long, frustrating night in construction soothed by phoenix song, and on more than one occasion, lives saved when the bird had flown in and sacrificed itself in a burst of flame when the construction became dangerous. I had carried him in my pocket for many weeks, and later on my shoulder after these times, the looks of adoration from both wizard and Muggle uncomfortable at first, but I had become accustomed to it over time.

There was commotion down the hall, and I saw the unruly, curly hair of my mate far down the hall, over some of the heads of the staff and construction workers. There were murmurs from the assembled, as he was dressed from head to toe in a fine black robe, something that I suspected had cost a small fortune to put together. Rarely did he dress like this, preferring simple robes of black or red, with little or no adornment, only dressing up for official functions. I had learned to put it out of my mind why this was so.

"Gellert, what are you doing here? I thought you would not be here until much later!" He embraced me, and I was startled at the softness of the fabric where it brushed my skin. We stood there for a moment, cheek to cheek, then he pulled away a little, smiling widely in that slightly manic way that usually meant he had a surprise up his sleeve. I narrowed my eyes, fixing him with the sternest stare I could manage, though his jubilation was infectious, and I couldn't prevent the smile that crept onto my face at the sight of him.

"I have a surprise!"

_Yes, I'd gathered that._ He pulled at my hands, leading me outside into the summer sun, most of the staff following us out, which I found curious, as most of the time they covertly watched or ignored us. Gellert offered me his arm, and I knew I was in for something large. _Just where did we have to go that required that I side-along apparate with him?_ I took it regardless, and we disappeared.

Stone, bright sunlight, a crowd of people along the walls of a...castle? I looked around, squinting at the brightness. Gellert releasing me as I took in where we stood in a stone courtyard, the bulk of the castle surrounding us. A crowd of onlookers watched us, some familiar, some not so much. I turned to Gellert, who was biting his lip, eyes sparkling as he looked at me, then at the crowd assembled.

"I have invited you all here today, to witness a very special event!" Arms outspread as he addressed them, he continued, "As most of you know, the core of our goals has been for the _Greater Good_, and I know that I could not have done this alone." He turned to me, his face sombre. "This man, has stood by me when the last man had fallen, when I thought I could not hold onto my dreams any longer. When I thought it was too much, and when it was too much. Convinced me to allow another way of looking at the world, he has been my heart, the heart of Bavaria!"

A cheer from the crowd, and I could feel a hot blush creep across my cheeks, aware of my drab clothing and dirty countenance. Gellert held my hands in his, and to my immense embarrassment, he fell to his knees. Oh no.

"There is one thing that I have not completed, that we have not finished, though it was promised when our plans were mere seeds of revolution! The promise that has made it possible, and has went unfulfilled until now." He kissed my fingers, and our hands clasped tighter. "Will you marry me Albus Dumbledore? Today?"

A hush fell over the crowd, and tears welled up in my eyes. My answer was the same, after the failures and glories of the last decade, "Yes, yes Gellert, I will." it was barely a whisper, through the lump in my throat, but the response from the crowd was a jubilant cheer. We were finally getting what I had desired so long ago, walking the streets of Berlin as a young man, the chance to be like everyone else, to prove that **all **love was worth it.

Gellert took my hands and led me inside, the throne room was decorated with gold and red drapery between the gorgeously detailed frescos that decorated the walls. Some of them had been charmed over so that they acted out their parts in the play they were portraying, and others depicted us in the most beautiful fairytales and legends. Pinned between the draperies and decorations, here and there, was the symbol of the hallows, and everything we believed in.

Unlike Muggle weddings, it was allowed for anyone to get married, regardless of gender, and the man that stood in the official robes of a minister was a wizard. Slowly, we were changing the perception of the Muggles as well, and I hoped for the day when we were not thought of as a curiosity in the wider world. Three smartly dressed young men approached and Gellert kissed my cheek, "They will escort you so you can dress properly for this grand occasion." he whispered to me, and I allowed them to escort me up a circular staircase.

In the room, hung prominently, was the most beautiful set of white robes I had ever seen. They were embroidered with silver and gold, and I could see the faint glow of runic work sewn in along with the shapes of phoenixes in gold, and silvery roses along the hems. I held out a sleeve and marveled at the large violet gems set into it, phoenix wings curling from either side of the setting in gold and red. Dotted all over the robes were similar violet gems, all shining in an intricate cut that brought out the deep colour of them, all accented with gold wings.

One of my attendants tapped me on the shoulder and asked if I would prefer to be dressed, and I told him to stay, but I would dress as far as I was able. I highly suspected that I would need help with the bulk of the robes. Off to the side, a set of silk trousers and a shirt hung, and without a word I shucked off my dirty work clothing, sorely wishing for a bath, when one of them handed me a steaming bowl and a rag, all three of them facing away from me and gesturing to an intricate three paneled privacy panel.

I would learn later that there was full plumbing here, but such a spur of the moment event hardly gave me time for a soak. I washed quickly, and unpinned my hair, thankful that I had washed the day before, and so my hair was still a long silky mass that spilled around my shoulders. I had carefully grown it very long, and the very ends of it brushed the backs of my knees now, a silken copper waterfall that I usually kept pinned or tied up when working. I had also grown a small goatee, though it was not very long as my hair, curling slightly at the carefully tended ends at the tip of my jaw. I took off my glasses and realized that there was a fresh pair on the dressing table as well, as I slipped the new pair on, I wondered when they were made, as well as when the tailoring had been done for the robes.

No time to think of that now, I stepped out, pulling on the silken trousers and shirt, both simple and only lightly dyed at the hems with red runes and abstract shapes. The attendants were at my side, unhooking the robe, which I realized now was much longer at the back, and would, when worn, have a 5 or 6 metre train. I stepped into it and allowed them to fasten a myriad of buttons and tie ribbons, the robes fitting me like a second skin, as I thought they would. High heeled buckled shoes of polished white leather were given to me, also fitting beautifully, and I slipped them on without a word, used to wearing heels on a daily basis. I wondered about the train as I stood now, the attendants making small adjustments with hand, and one with wand, and it was charmed smooth behind me.

I stood at the door, my left hand resting on my breast, adorned with another phoenix, in gold and silver and embroidery. Finally. I opened the door, and two attendants stood at either side of me, the third rushing off, to where I did not know, until I heard music, an unfamiliar tune on the air. I schooled my features to hide the sudden burst of butterflies in my belly as I stepped into the light, and down the aisle, lined with people, all beautifully dressed in rows on either side of me.

I blushed anyway, aware of their eyes on me as I walked past, the fairytale bride, but not really. The fairytale grooms both, I shook my head, smiling, it did not matter, seeing Gellert's face as I closed the distance between us, the love in his eyes and a certain sparkle of possessiveness He took my hands, kissing them, and we turned towards the minister.

He spoke the words that would bind us, and we repeated them back, the catch in Gellert's voice as he did tugging at my heart, my own happy tears blurring the vision of everyone around us.

"You may now kiss and seal your promise to each other" And he tilted my head back and placed the most tender kiss on my lips, the roar of the crowd cheering a distant sound as we broke apart, his amber eyes on my own azure ones.

He leaned close to me, kissing me again and whispering, "_Ich...ich liebe dich_." against my lips, "I love you" I whispered back, forehead to his. We were announced as the Grindeldore family by the minister, and a cheer went up from the crowd.

The rest of the evening was filled with laughter, much drinking and food, and passed largely as a pleasant blur for me. Gellert never left my side the entire night, his possessive hand on my hip or shoulder, his pretty prize. That I was much more than that made the deal that much sweeter. We were walking, hand in hand down the hallway, up to where our new rooms would be. To my shock, he told me that we would be **living** here from now on. I had thought it was only for the wedding, but he was leading me into a lavishly decorated room.

"This is the sleeping chamber for the late King Ludwig II of Bavaria!" he said, shutting the lovely, carved wooden door behind him. I suspected the beautiful, Gothic bed was transfigured slightly larger, but that did not take from the intricate woodwork of it, and I touched it in wonder. Gellert was standing beside me, grinning, "It is lovely is it not?"

"Yes...we...this is our room now?"

"_Ja._" He had raised his wand, and with a word the robes unbuttoned themselves at my back, his hands sliding the lovely fabric aside to place a kiss through the thin silk on my shoulders.

The robe was lifted and set aside as I stepped out of it, a stand for it conjured and it was carefully hung there. I eyed it, wondering if I would ever have another occasion to wear the lovely garment. Gellert was pushing me down onto the soft bed gently, his hot breath tickling my neck as he nipped and kissed, pulling little whimpers from me as he did so, slowly unbuttoning my silken shirt, placing a hungry kiss on each bit of exposed flesh. I giggled softly as he brushed his lips over my flat stomach, his teeth grasping the edge of my trousers, slowly undoing the button and kissing the exposed flesh. Holding me firmly, he nuzzled my hardness, chuckling as it drew mewls from me and I bucked my hips against his firm hold. The slide of silk like water against my flesh as he slipped the trousers off to pool at my feet.

The tip of his tongue slid along the underside of my cock, and his hands clamped back onto my hips and held me down when my hips bucked. My shaky hand in his hair, gently caressing his soft hair and unconsciously fisting it when he swallowed me, he made a sound of discomfort, which sent little tendrils of pleasure up and down my spine. He teased me, teeth and tongue in all the places I liked, just a little too firmly holding me down, hot and slick, and I squirmed against his grip, panting against the mattress. He released me, slowly licking the precum from the tip of my painfully hard cock, and divesting himself quickly of his own clothing, amber eyes on me the entire time.

He pressed against me, skin to skin, and I groaned loudly, grinding against him as he pressed me hard against the mattress, growling. I pulled him closer, trembling as he ground against me. "Mine." he whispered, entwining his hands with mine and pulling my arms above my head.

I laughed softly, kissing him, "I am blushing, but shouldn't I be a virgin?" his laugh was deep as he nibbled at my neck.

"You are, for me...do you remember?" Of course I did, he was my first, my only...and smiled, yes, I understood. I was his, he'd already had my body, and he had my heart, there was nothing else to give that I hadn't already.

Gellert's surprisingly gentle fingers at my entrance, sliding slickly into my heat and crooking ever so slightly to entice my hips to buck against him, wanting more.

"Gellert...please..." I was painfully hard, every ounce of my being wanting him inside me, riding me until I broke. He caressed my legs appreciatively and murmured, kissing the backs of my knees and I locked my legs around him, urging him closer, feeling the tip of his cock slide teasing against me.

He positioned himself and pushed forward, sheathing himself in me with one clean stroke, and I shuddered under him, his lips to my neck as he breathed hard, allowing me the barest moment to adjust before sliding almost all the way out, piercing me with another hard thrust, his hands entwined in mine as he slowly fucked me, groaning softly with every thrust to the time of my own breathy moans. My hips met his, arching off the bed as a particularly deep thrust hit that spot deep within me, and my sharp cries filled the room as our pace became faster, the hunger and need driving us on. Gellert pulled me to the edge of the bed, thrusting hard into me as I wreathed under him, begging and moaning his name as each sublime thrust thrilled through me, and he thrust harder, faster, biting at my shoulder, and I came hard, wave after wave of pleasure washing over me, hot cum splattering across my flat stomach.

Gellert growled, one hard vicious thrust and a ragged groan, stiffening as he came inside of me, painting my tight heat with his hot seed as he cursed and shook against me in the throes of pleasure. We stilled and he kissed me tenderly, nuzzling the red bite mark on my shoulder, smiling a little. I drifted sleepily, wriggling a little when he withdrew from me, cleaning our bodies and pulling me under the soft blankets. If there was sublime bliss, I knew it now as I drifted off to sleep, clinging to my new husband.

**Author's Note:** The artwork of the robes is here: /E2Q3U Gellert is wearing platform boots under that robe to be eye to eye with Albus.


	22. Flame in the Twilight

**Author's Note:**I said I wouldn't warn, but I am going to for this chapter. Mpreg ahoy!

**Flame in the Twilight**

_**-Albus-**_

Ten years had passed since we had gotten married, and though the Muggles were gearing up for a second war, we had proved ourselves to be largely independent of it, looking over our small haven for Muggle and wizard alike. Many people had pledged themselves to our cause, and Bavaria was now neutral ground, a protection from the war that seemed inevitable **again **from the Muggle side. Neuschwanstein, Füssen, and the surrounding area were under our own personal wards, though we had representatives and protectors in every city now. Thought of expansion was always on Gellert's mind, but it was largely impossible and risky in the current climate, best to remain neutral and wait this out.

Gellert and I were curled in bed, his steady breath against my neck as he slept spooned against me. I wondered about the future, and planned to go to Füssen today, one of my rare days of leisure these days. It was a full time job to keep this country running, and we were often busy and it was not uncommon for us to be sleeping alone, so this was somewhat of an indulgence. He stirred against me, mumbling something against my skin that I did not catch, but tingled anyways. "Albus..."

"Mmm?"

"Would you have my son?"

I blinked, turning to Gellert, smiling as he grumbled and wrapped his arms around me again, kissing me gently and wrapping his legs around me for good measure. "Gellert..."

"I...I understand if you..." He hugged me close, sighing.

Days before, we had met in Füssen. The local children have taken a shine to me, Muggle and wizard alike, and in this town at least they played together. We were playing a simple game with a ball in a small field by the road. I caught sight of Gellert out of the corner of my eye, and he watched us for a long time, until the children were tired, and sat in small groups talking and eating their lunches. He watched the children, his arm around my shoulders as we sat on a fence, and it felt perfectly ordinary, that day.

I had been thinking along the same lines, but there was a very big problem. A lot of the methods in which a male pregnancy could be accomplished with magic were either very risky (to both parent and child), or very very illegal. The latter did not concern me much, but there was a reason for the restrictions in this case. Often pure blood families had exploited it to further 'strengthen' their bloodlines, an act that led to the demise of many a family from disease or deformation. It was also used by many as a form of torture, as without outside intervention, it was fatal. Thus hefty regulation had come down on it, eventually making it illegal.

The first was my main concern, for any attempt at this carried a certain amount of risk. _Any_ pregnancy did, though with the _Phönix Krankenhaus_ that was becoming rarer, at least in Bavaria.

Gellert was still, and I wondered if he was asleep, but he brushed a strand of hair from my face, smiling lightly. "I know it is a risk...but...I would like to have a child that was _ours_ alone to inherit our legacy."

"How do you propose we do this then?"

"Mmm...We must tread carefully..."

* * *

We went over a lot of different possibilities in the following weeks, and there were a great many spells and potions for this purpose. What we ultimately decided on was a combination of methods, for the most stability and least risk, and took us weeks to acquire all of the often expensive or rare materials for the potions, and reagents for the casting itself.

In the highest tower of our castle, we had decided to do this, the room there one of the few that was left unused by ourselves or the staff. I decided I liked it up here, windows all around the circular room to present a spectacular view of the Bavarian Alps below, the trees currently shrouded with snow. In the middle of the room, a circular bed was placed, covered with a silken coverlet embroidered with glowing red runes at the edges, and a cryptic design in the middle. This had been suggested to us by Nicholas Flamel when I owled him and mentioned our intentions in passing, an integration of the alchemic into this intimate setting, it was he that had sent the coverlet to us, already ready for us.

Gellert milled about the room, lighting candles and shrouding the windows with meters of white silk. I sat on the bed, dressed in a white robe not dissimilar from my wedding robes, inlaid with the same crimson runes that decorated the coverlet. Much of the decoration of the room itself was not necessary to the casting, but Gellert insisted upon it, that this should be *special* for us both. I smiled to myself. He was really a romantic only when it suited his moods.

Gellert was also dressed in white, though he only wore silky white trousers that left very little to the imagination, so tightly tailored were they to his muscular body. I watched him, smoothing out the meters of fabric of my robes, truly more of a dress than robes, not that I really minded so much. I must have looked like a sacrifice among the flow of fabric all around me, sitting in the middle of the runed circle on the bed waiting quietly for the one that would break me.

He was before me, his wand in hand, and handed me my own sombrely, sitting across from me and leaning close to wrap his arms around me, nuzzling my cheek, "You can still back out _mein liebe_, I will not be angry."

That he still left me the choice warmed me, because I knew how desperately he wanted this. "No, I am sure."

"_Ich liebe dich..._I love you Albus..."

"I love you too Gellert.."

Gellert stood again, chanting,"_Zeugungsfähigkeit_, _Liebe, Lust, Glück_." Each word lit a rune in the circle, "_Abschluss, umschlingen!" _

Our faces were bathed in red and gold light, a gold that matched Gellert's flickering gaze. The night before, I had imbibed half of the potions needed to bring about the physical transformation, which had been a painful experience, but this last set would be the catalyst for our casting, and a bit of...incentive.

Gellert held the first vial to my lips, lined with sugar, and I briefly wondered where he had gotten sugar before letting the cool liquid slide down my throat, the slight burn of pepper and cinnamon on my tongue. The warmth of it spread slowly through me, warming me from head to toe. The second vial tasted like ice and glass, and I felt a trill of power surge through me. Gellert drank his bottles quickly, knocking them back without tasting them, and set our wands to the edge of the circular bed.

Our lips met tremulously, and we tumbled back onto the bed, laughing softly between kisses as Gellert nipped and sucked on my lower lip. Alternating between butterfly kisses and kissing me so deeply that we had to gasp for breath. He kissed my cheeks, the tip of my nose, placing a rain of kisses down my neck, sucking and biting until I was mewling and gasping, doubtlessly leaving a trail of marks that I would feel tomorrow.

Slowly he unbuttoned the front of my robes, mouthing the exposed flesh, dipping his tongue into the hollow of my sternum, following each button down until my chest was exposed, licking and biting at each nipple until they were hard nubs. I twined my hands into his hair as he moved lower, sliding his tongue down my stomach, circling my navel, and I arched off the mattress with a cry. He chuckled softly, unhooking the last button and pushing the fabric away to expose my aching cock.

_**-Gellert-**_

I pressed kisses to his inner thighs, tasting the barest hint of salt, avoiding his erection, all the way down to his slender feet. I caressed the soles of his feet, grinning when he giggled softly, squirming and sitting up slightly with sparkling eyes. I did not see the point of the ritual clothes, we were only going to disrobe anyway, and I rose briefly to divest myself of my trousers. Albus looked up at me from a pool of fabric, and I lifted him out of the robes easily, tossing them aside and laying him back on the white fabric, the red runes and complex sigil glowing against his pale skin, brighter where his skin touched the spellwork.

I ran my hands firmly down his body, anxious to touch him everywhere, to make him mine, to make this special. To prove that we were just as good as anyone else. That was really why I wanted this, to prove to my family that we were just like normal couples, right down to the children. Albus was watching me, caressing my hair and smiling up at me. And there was this, the desire to have something _ours,_ really ours.

The heat of the strong aphrodisiac pulsed through my veins and I ground against Albus, his hands gripping my back and hair as he wreathed under me, his skin as hot as mine, arching himself against me, desperate to feel me, be part of me, and I strained towards him as well. Desire clouded my vision, narrowed it only to him, his lithe body sliding against mine, the tug of his fingers through my hair, just a little rougher than he usually was, my gentle one. Our cocks sliding between our slick bodies.

I felt the pleasure building too soon...I stilled and tried to gather myself, gripping his shoulders and panting into his soft hair, mingled sweat and soap tantalizing. My wand in my hands, I coaxed Albus into my lap, and he clung to me, panting heavily. I pressed the tip of it to his back, whispering the final stage of the spell, he cried out as slender tendrils of magic danced over his back, and I handed him his wand. The process repeated on my back, with his wand, and I hissed as heated tendrils snaked across my skin, hot enough to burn, but leaving no mark.

The tendrils twisted around each other, white and pink and flashes of red from the sigil under us, and I felt the tug, as if our very souls were being drawn together, he shook in my arms, gripping my back tightly as I was his, grinding against me, and I pulled him more upright, positioning my slick cock and sliding into him with one thrust.

A flash of light, and I closed my eyes against it, hot like he was, all I could feel was heat, my hands on his hips. When I opened my eyes, a twist of colours around us, wild magic, twisting around us in spirals of all hues, and I had to close my eyes to it, letting Albus lay me back.

**_-Albus-_**

I felt the crackle of magic around us, a ball of heat in my torso, a kernel of bright, hot flame that only Gellert could cool. I rocked back, relishing in the deep thrusts, guiding him down until I straddled him, riding his cock, each deep thrust caressing that fire inside me, and I leaned forward, panting and wanting more. His thrusts met mine, and there was nothing but us, this building pleasure and I couldn't think, there was nothing but his cock and my body, and the building fire. For an instant I couldn't feel where my consciousness ended and his began, feeling the tightness around my cock, the thrust of it as it delved into my tight entrance. The magic licked at me, and I could barely hold my wand, overwhelmed as I came jolts of fire through every vein, feeling Gellert moan and hold my hips, thrusting hard into me, and I whimpered above him as the fire ebbed into an ember's glow.

We leaned against each other, breathing hard, and opened our eyes to the dark room. Gellert was caressing my back gently, aftershocks of pleasure causing us to tremble and gasp. I whimpered when he slid out of my slickened body, and he pulled me down to lay upon him, fingers in my hair to loosen the tie that had held my hair back, and it flowed like a river across our bodies, caressing us with silken fingers. I lay my head on his chest, listening to his rapid heartbeat as it slowed into a more steady rhythm with my own, and drifted to sleep.


	23. Thirty-Eight Weeks

**Thirty-Eight Weeks **

_**-Albus-**_

For the first few days, I did not know what to expect, this was not exactly conventional, though today I did feel a bit peaky, but I wanted to visit the _Phönix Krankenhaus, _to make sure everything was running smoothly.

"Ms. Schwarz, how are things this evening?" Ms. Schwarz was a short witch, barely coming up to my chest, but made up for her size with a cutting personality, and unerring perfection. Her dark hair flowed free today, the colour of hazelnut and curly like Gellert's hair was.

Ms. Schwarz was the head Healer here at the hospital, which was gathering a rather diverse staff of specialists from all around Europe. "We have received a very special man who will be looking over our young mothers from now on."

"Is that so? May I meet him?"

"Of course Herr Grindledore, this way." She led me down the hall, sidestepping various other white coated doctors and healers on her way, and we ascended the stairs to the 5th floor.

"Ms. Schwarz, a moment..." Such an activity would not have normally winded me, and I struggled to calm my breathing, "My apologies."

She nodded and led me to the first door, which was open into an office, which was covered in all sorts of anatomical drawings, writings and pictures, mostly of babies or pregnant women. Piles of books littered the desk, and almost concealed the man sitting behind them, who was engrossed in a piece of research I presumed.

Ms. Schwarz cleared her throat and he looked up, startled to see us standing on the other side of his desk. "Herr Schwarz, this is our patron, and the Protectorate of Bavaria, Albus Grindeldore. Herr Grindeldore, this is Mr. Schwarz, our new doctor for the care of pregnant women and children."

"Are you...?"The embarrassing question was out before I could suppress it, but Ms. Schwarz shook her head.

"No, no relation."

"I see, well, welcome to _Phönix Krankenhaus_! I hope you will have much to contribute here in the future!"

We shook hands and I felt a sudden wave of nausea, swaying on my feet as my vision blurred, "Herr Grindeldore?" I could hear their voices, first annoyance then concern, then nothing and blackness.

I awoke to stare at the crisp white ceiling, which was decorated by a lovely wizarding painting of small stars and moons that were currently playing a game of chase, zooming to and fro. I could hear the shuffle of feet and muffled conversation just beyond my earshot.

I felt awful, though the nausea had gone, it felt like I had run from here to England and back without breathing. I did not have the strength to raise my head.

The click of heels on the floor and snippets of conversation became quite clear."It's impossible, he can't be, it has to be a mistake."

"You do not understand wizards Herr. Schwarz, it **is** possible!"

"I can't believe..."

"There are ways..."

"How?"

"Ask him, he might tell you, it isn't my specialty as a healer."

A face appeared in my vision, Herr Schwarz. "Ah! You are awake...uhm..." He looked distinctly uncomfortable, and I realized what they must have been discussing in my absence.

"Yes, I am."

His eyes widened, and he stepped back, regarding me sceptically, "You're...you're pregnant?"

"Yes, I had wondered about this part...wondered if it worked or not. Given my current circumstance, I can assume it has!"

I struggled to sit up, and Herr Schwarz propped pillows behind my back, and Ms. Schwarz tilted the bed up so I could sit upright.

"How...how is this possible?"

"Magic mostly Herr Schwarz, with a little bit of chemical help from potions. Have you spoken to our Healers? It would benefit you to learn what they know about magical healing, and them to know what non-magical healing is like."

"Yes..."

"Second thoughts?"

"No, just overwhelming, I came here not knowing what to expect, not being a wizard, and there is much I need to learn."

I nodded, "We encourage an open channel of information here, so we can further the health of others for the Greater Good."

"Let me be your personal healer Herr Grindeldore."

"I can't take you from this place for my own use, it would not be fair..."

"Please, I must be a part of this, I must know!"

I smiled, "I will come here until you can find a replacement, and then, and only then will I allow you to come to serve in my home."

"You are very generous Herr Grindeldore. Thank you."

Gellert's head poked around the door, eyes wide as he took in my current state and immediately coming to stand at my side, "Are you okay? I was told you_ collapsed_..."

He held my hand and I sighed softly, "Yes, I am fine, just a bit tired. Our secret is out my love."

"No, it isn't." Ms. Schwarz said sharply, "The knowledge of your condition is confined to those standing in this room."

I smiled and nodded at her, of course she would be taciturn enough not to let the word spread. "When will you tell your people?"

Herr Schwarz asked quietly, "It's not every day that such a thing happens, and you are our leaders! Congratulations!"

"Thank you."

Gellert squeezed my hand, "Not until he is born if I can help it, though in a few months it will be impossible to hide. I don't want him to become a Muggle curiosity"

He glared at Herr Schwarz, and I rubbed my thumb over Gellert's knuckles soothingly. "I am only curious Herr Grindeldore, I mean no harm to him! I swear it. I would like to understand, so that there is no more fear."

* * *

I felt well enough to leave the hospital that evening, though Gellert decided I was not well enough to walk and insisted on _carrying_ me, though I admit I drifted off to sleep in his arms despite my mortal embarrassment

The next weeks largely consisted of me being sick, and though tired, carrying on with my duties as Chancellor.

Herr Schwarz, Michael as we have come to call him by his first name, with such frequent visits. He was still insistent that he become our house doctor. He was a very ambitious man, interested to know the reasons for why everything worked, and was often conducting research at the hospital. I had finally agreed that he could be our house doctor, but that his research must be conducted at the hospital and shared with other doctors of his caliber, and he agreed this was fair.

Michael was very interested in my case especially, though not because I was a Chancellor, but because I was a man, and he puzzled over the more mundane details of it. Gellert was with us today, and we were sitting in the tower room where we had conceived the fetus (as Michael had so charmingly called it). Currently the round bed was transfigured into a table with a lovely white tablecloth, the now blackened runes making a lovely design on the fabric, their magic spent.

Gellert had widened the windows, and I had enchanted the ceiling so that light spilled into the room during all times of the year, a sun room to spend my days. It was daytime, and bright, pale natural winter light streamed in from all sides, illuminating the white room to an almost blinding white. Michael was listening to my heart, taking down terse notes in a crisp, leather bound notebook, checking various other vital signs as well. Gellert sat across from me, having gotten used to Michael's presence, and surprisingly much more comfortable with him than he was with any of the magical midwives.

I felt I was too, it would be terribly embarrassing to subject myself to this kind of prodding on a daily basis from a female, it just was not proper. Pregnant such as I was, I was still a male, and my conservative views towards mixed gender nudity still stuck with me, though I had not stepped foot in my birth country in nearly 30 years now. Gellert was not so concerned with it, if they were family, but if they were strangers I suspected his resistance to it had more to do with jealousy than prudence.

I sipped my tea, sadly decaffeinated at this stage in pregnancy, which was 18 weeks along, almost 5 months, and was starting to show quite roundly. My robes were tailored to conceal the burgeoning swelling of my belly, but soon I would not be able to hide it any longer, always being the thin, lithe type. A sharp pain made me gasp and Gellert's chair squeaked across the floor as he rushed to my side.

"No, no, I..." It was not as sharp this time, and I placed a hand wonderingly to my stomach, wincing as I felt it again, "I..." It was overwhelming, in that moment, what I felt...the baby was kicking. Alive and healthy, the first sign that I was carrying a new life inside of me, and that it was _ours._ Gellert placed his hand on mine, the other on my shoulder, and Michael stood a discrete distance away, a half smile on his face.

"Is it..."

"Touch."

I placed his hand next to mine, on my rounded flesh, a smaller kick causing him to remove his hand like it was burned, then place it back on, hesitantly.

"That is...that is..."

"Yes..." he nuzzled my cheek, kissing tears from my eyes. He hugged me tightly and we were silent for a while, I sitting, and he standing. Michael cleared his throat and lay a hand on my shoulder.

"Soon enough we will be able to hear the heartbeat!"

Soon I was too tired to continue my duties, and the rumours started to circulate about my disappearance. The people were restless for the face of their country, the "heart of Bavaria" as I was often called, and small protests began popping up demanding that they see me.

Late in my pregnancy, Gellert invited a group of the most vocal protesters to see me at the seat of government in München, thoroughly exasperated at their stubbornness. Though I was tired, Gellert carried me there, to show that I was okay, not dead or poisoned, or whatever silly fate they thought had befallen me under him. Though I wore clothing that flared out just under my chest, it could not conceal the fact I was pregnant. There was to be a press conference after, to officially announce the happy news.

"Monster!" A familiar voice, one I had not heard in years, at the head of a small group, perhaps twenty or thirty strong, flanked by our own guardians, and further by my personal protectors, who stood at either side of me, three strong.

"You have been killing him he..." The man stood where they had stopped him, several metres away from me, hindered by gun and wand.

I blinked, unsure, "Elphias?!"

"Albus...they...he is poisoning you! I should have come sooner!" Elphias strained against the bayonets keeping him physically from me, and the protectors that flanked me raised their wands in warning. He looked haggard, a shadow of the sweet boy I'd known and loved at Hogwarts."He has changed you, he.."

"I have done no such thing!" Gellert growled from over my shoulder. "Albus is perfectly fine! I have not done any of those things that you say that I have done! He is healthy!" he looked pointedly at my stomach, but Elphias did not follow his eyes.

Of course, my baby took that moment to kick, and despite it having happened countless times before, I still gasped and placed my hand upon my belly.

"NO! It can't be!"

Gellert squeezed my shoulders and I looked Elphias in the eyes again. "Yes. It can. I am."

"He's really poisoned you!" I clenched my teeth and stood, and Gellert moved to my side almost automatically, offering me his support, and I allowed him to support me. "No, you barmy idiot! I am up the duff! Pregnant! Bun in the oven!" Incensed, I walked right up to where he was held back, "I have not been poisoned, concussed, compulsed, cursed, or anything of the sort! I did this of my own free will!"

He gaped at me, eyes down to my stomach and back, and I let go of the wall that kept him from seeing my thoughts, and he stepped back from the barricade, shaking his head violently, "No, no, you were _good_ once, you were _pure_! Come back with me! Leave this, we can save you! Save you from this! You don't have to risk your life for him!"

He pressed against the bayonets again, and Gellert pulled me back and stepped forward. "Albus did not do this for me!" That wasn't entirely true, but I did not regret it either.

"I am not at risk Elphias"

"It will _kill_ you, he will_ kill_ you! _All of this will kill you!_ Get _rid_ of it! We can start over, we can get_ rid_ of it!"

"WHAT?!" Gellert roared, wand to Elphias' forehead, my own wand up as well.

"How could you say that?" I said between my teeth, "You'd kill an innocent to get back with me? Is that what you mean?!" Gellert said nothing, but looked as if he would cheerfully remove Elphias' head and wear it as a hat, his left arm curled possessively around my shoulders.

"We can still walk away! You can still live!"

I shook with rage, "Get out! Get out! Anyone who thinks that I should just kill an innocent for their personal gain is not welcome here!"As the guards dragged him and the mortified crowd that he had brought with him back to the door, I called out, "If you see anyone in this group, you may attack on sight! They are not welcome here, or in Bavaria!"

"You can't!"

"I can, you made the mistake of thinking I am powerless and I am _not_! I am the High Chancellor, and _you_ should not have come here!" Elphias screamed at me, his voice fainter and fainter, followed by the thud of heavy wooden doors, and silence. I trembled, feeling a jolt of pain flare up, nothing like the dull pain of the baby kicking, and I slumped heavily against Gellert as my legs gave way. "Gellert..."

"Ist time?"

"Yes...This will have to wait..Michael..."

"We will go now." He gathered me in his arms and disapparated.

We had agreed the birth had to happen in a separate room, and a room had been prepared ahead of time, and we reappeared within it. I was lain on the bed as Gellert screamed for Michael, who was predictably not far away and was at my side in mere moments. A wave of pain rippled through me, and I gripped the sheets, clenching my teeth so hard my jaw ached.

Gellert looked terrified, and smoothed hair from my sweaty brow with shaking hands, moving behind my head to braid it into a loose braid, draping it across my pillow and securing it with a ribbon. Michael looked calm, though I saw the apprehension flicker in his eyes as he set aside the surgical instruments that would be needed. Another wave of pain and I arched off the bed, cursing in both languages.

Michael stood over me, and I felt the prick of a needle in my wrist, and my eyes followed up to the drip that contained the Blood Replenishing potion. This was a hurdle of magical healers, how to administer potions to an unconscious person, and this was one solution. The other, that we had agreed upon, was that I would be unconscious, and he lowered the mask onto my face, and I drifted to black.

_**-Gellert-**_

I caressed Albus' cheek as he drifted off, and Michael draped a blue blanket over his middle, setting his feet in stirrups, bare as they had been for about a month now. The other doctor, Frau Schwarz, was also present now, taking his vital signs and setting a line of jars on the tray with the knives and needles. "Scalpel." Michael said, and she handed him one, and I had to turn away, even as far as I was from his middle, I couldn't stand the idea that they had to cut him. I tensed, bracing myself for the smell of blood that did not come, and I realized that Frau Schwarz was handing me a heavily peppermint scented cloth. She said nothing, but nodded to me curtly as I held it over my nose and mouth.

A baby's cry rang out, and for a while there was just that sound, and the shuffling of a towel, water being poured. Frau Schwarz approached me, a squirming bundle in her arms, wrapped in a soft white blanket.

"A son, your son." She said, and she was smiling, I don't think I'd ever seen her smile, and was surprised by it. "Do you want to hold him?"

I did, and held out my arms, and she showed me how to support his head. He had feathery hair that was...orange, bright orange, and I laughed, running a finger over it. He quieted at that, looking up with unfocused eyes that seemed to be every sort of eye colour together, ringed with rings of blue and gold. "Will his eyes change?"

"Some babies' eyes change yes."

I looked up, concerned for my husband, and looked up to see Herr Schwarz bent over him, head under the blanket, "Stitching him up, he is fine." Frau Schwarz said, and he seemed to be, his chest rising and falling steadily. I drew up a chair with my wand, a comfortable, plush leather chair, and sat in it, cradling my newborn son and watching over my husband.

"Here, you can feed him now." Frau Schwarz handed me a bottle, and I raised an eyebrow at her, "We have arranged a nanny and a wet nurse for him." I hadn't thought of it, so caught up in everything that had to be done with Bavaria, and caring for Albus, and their concern warmed me. Allowing Herr Schwarz into my home at Albus' behest had not been easy on me, but I had grown to trust his judgement.

Our son took to it greedily, and I held the bottle for him, wondering at what we'd created.

"She is staying in the next room Herr Grindeldore, and if you wish it she can also care for him while your husband recovers."

"Thank you...will he be okay?" I gestured to Albus with a tilt of my head, both of my hands occupied. As I watched however, he turned his head towards me and opened his eyes with an soft moan.

"G...Gellert..?"

"I'm here...and look!" I held our son up for him to see, and he smiled faintly, reaching out to caress his orange candyfloss hair.

"Our son..."

He struggled to sit upright but Michael held him still, "Apologies, but you should rest, your son will be here when you wake." Albus did not fight him, and continued to look at me and our son sleepily.

"What will you name him?" Michael asked.

"Arcturus...our star." Albus murmured, and I shrugged, the movement causing the baby to whimper.

"Arcturus then. We will decide his other names when you are more awake." I bent and kissed Albus' sweaty brow as he closed his eyes once more.


	24. Child of the Stars

**The Child of the Stars**

_**-Albus-**_

It took me several weeks before I was able to move around without assistance of some sort, my belly now flat again, the slightest of softness and a scar to testify to what I'd been through. We were in the sun room, and it was midday, warm sun streaming in from open windows. Arcturus was watching me from where I had set him on a white blanket by the windows, holding a round baby toy and happily mouthing it. I had propped myself upon pillows, lounging on the round bed in the middle of the room, writing out yet another letter to the British minister, petitioning for their support. Most of my correspondence was like this, many letters like it, negotiation along long distances, trying to gain much needed allies.

Gellert sat on the bed, poking Arcturus' toy to watch him wriggle and laugh, and I marvelled at how well he had adapted to being a father. I had not thought he would be very good at it, but he seemed to be perfectly affectionate to the child, even when he woke us in the wee hours from the adjacent room when the nanny was not always able to shush him. I would sometimes hear him singing a lullaby to Arcturus and talking with the nanny late at night.

My desire for Gellert had come back in full force, and as he nosed my neck I could feel my body responding to him. I had been quite insatiable lately, and he had obliged me on many a warming spring night. To my disappointment, he scooped Arcturus up from his blankets, "Has he been fed?" "Not recently, you can see if he is hungry, though he looks quite content to me." A flick of a wand and a bottle appeared, and he tugged the toy from Arcturus' mouth, prompting a small whimper before it was replaced with the bottle, which was taken readily. I lay my head against Gellert's knee, sealing my letter and placing it with the pile of letters to be sent to the owls.


	25. Dirt On The Shoes

**Dirt On The Shoes**

_**-Gellert-**_

We walk in the dark, our wands the only light along the long, winding path. A large house sits above us, one light burning in a window high above. Albus is beside me, and as we draw close to the house I curl one hand around his middle. A soft gurgle and he turns to murmur to the bundle in his arms, our son, just weeks old. I close my eyes and steel myself. This will not be easy. My father has refused to speak to me on account of his disapproval of my choice of lovers, and I have come to try to mend this. For myself and for my son. I ring the bell and sooner than I anticipate, a servant appears.

"_Mein Vater, bitte. Und meine Mutter also._" The servant merely nods, showing no interest whatsoever in me or Albus and leaves without a word. I draw Albus closer to me and kiss him lightly on the cheek.

Shadows interrupt the light shining out, and I hear my father's voice grate out in German. "You. What do you want?"

My mother stands in his shadow now, her eyes strangely dark. I struggle to keep my fury under control and out of my voice. "I have brought you a grandson..."

"You are not my son, and he is thus not my grandson."

I see my mother's eyes glitter, but she does not move, and before I can spend any time thinking of it, my father's wand is at my neck. I hear Albus' answering growl, and his wand is pointed at my father.

"Don't." is all he says, his eyes colder than ice as he stares at my father, not wavering at all. Arcturus makes a small cry, and his expression quickly turns to horror and he steps back, lowering his wand and staring at my father with sparkling eyes. It takes every fibre of my being not to slay my father then and there, for his wand is now pointed at Albus and my son.

I step between them, and can feel Albus' hand on my back. "Do not dare to do it! I have done everything, everything that you would have wanted for me! I created this country with Albus! I am rich, successful! I even have brought you a grandchild! What more do you want?"

My father is silent, the light from his back casting deep shadows on his face. "It will never be right. You will never be the son I wanted you to be."

I twitch and step back, stung. "But...I did everything..."

"You will always be freaks. You and that whore of a man you consort with!" I make a move to curse him into oblivion, but Albus' hand on my shoulder stops me. A flash of red light smashes at my feet, and I lurch back to avoid it.

Arcturus wakes at the commotion and begins to wail, and though Albus shushes him tenderly, and I take another step back, shielding them.

_No._ Flashes of memory come to me. Lights, Albus' begging voice, screams, and a girl falls to the floor. _No!_ I take another step back.

"Don't return here you _schweinhund_. There is nothing here for you!" My father sneers at me as I take another step back, haunted by that memory and hurt by his rejection. Another flash of light and Albus screams a shielding spell, and fire licks at it before dissipating. I grab his arm and half turn, taking us away from that place.


	26. When The Stars Fell

**Author's Note: **Remember kids! Practice Transfiguration responsibly! I realize that at this point that the quality of writing is deteriorating, and I'm sorry :(

**When the Stars Fell**

_**-Albus-**_

It was late night, and the lurch of nausea woke me, and I slipped carefully out of Gellert's arms, not wanting to alarm him with this. I had spent my last few nights in this way, curled upon the floor of the bath, vomiting or just curled up in pain. I reasoned that it was something that I must have acquired, a sickness or such, and had been waiting for it to pass. It had been three days, with no signs of abating, and I was afraid of what it meant. I would fall asleep in the nursery, in the chair next to our son's crib, sometimes waking upon the floor, thankful I was an early riser, and that Gellert would not find me here.

Another week went by, and I was avoiding everyone, Michael, the Nanny, and more than anything Gellert. I was gone before he awoke, desperately trying to hide. I did not want to acknowledge what it meant, what was wrong with me. I knew. I knew what it was. The prospect frightened me to the very core.

_**-Gellert-**_

Albus has slipped out of bed again, it is not even daylight yet. The castle is silent, and I know that our son finally sleeps through the night, though I find Albus in the chair sometimes by his crib. Last night however, I found him on the floor beside the crib, curled into the foetal position. So I am standing here this morning, under the invisibility cloak, listening to him retch and sob. He's sick, and I don't know what to do. He thinks I don't know about it, but I have from the start, and I do not understand why he is hiding it, what could it possibly be that he has to hide from me?

He creeps back to our room, and finds that I am gone, looking around with a fear in his eyes that I had not seen in the decades that I had known him._ What have I done to make him this afraid of me?_ I walk behind him, letting the invisibility cloak slip from my head and onto the floor, and pin his arms to his shoulders. He struggled against me, more surprised than anything, and I shush him, hugging him tightly to my chest.

"What are you hiding from me?" I whispered into the curl of his ear, and he shivers against me.

"I'm not..."

"You are" I turned him around to face me, kissing his forehead, "What have I done to make you so afraid of me?" It hurt me more than anything to admit that it might be something I had done. I had tried very hard not to hurt him again after what happened with his sister.

"I...I..." He was shaking, and I rubbed his back, confused. "I...you will be angry with me."

"No! I couldn't be angry at you for being sick! What gave you such a silly idea?" I kissed him lightly, tasting bitterness and frowning slightly, "You are sick, I know you are, why do you hide it?"

"I'm not...it's nothing, really."

"Nothing? You have left our bed for two weeks straight, to be sick at all hours of the night and morning, then creeping into the nursery as if nothing is wrong. Last night I found you on the _floor_ beside the crib! Do not tell me there is nothing wrong, I will not swallow that nonsense."

Albus clung to me, terrified tears streaming down his face as he shook his head, "I can't...you will be angry with me."

"I will not!"

"No...you don't understand..."

"Tell me...I cannot understand if you do not tell me! You have been sick like..." Something clicked into place for me, and suddenly I knew why he thought I'd be angry. It should not have been possible. "You're...it cannot be...you..."

Albus broke from me and slumped onto the bed, head in his hands, "It shouldn't be, but it **is**, I don't know how!"

I called for a house elf, and asked them to bring Michael to our quarters, and it disappeared.

"I...I'm sorry! I..."

I went to kneel at his feet, holding his hands to mine and brushing my cheek against them, "_Nein, _do not be, this...we can't be for sure until Michael comes."

"It shouldn't be possible."

"I know, something...what did we do?"

Albus looked away. "That one night when we..."

"..._schiesse, _I didn't think..."

Michael came, rubbing his eyes as he leaned against our door, "It is early, or late if you like...what is wrong?"

"It's Albus." I explained what I had observed, with Albus inserting commentary every once in a while, between heaving sobs. I sat on the bed beside him and rubbed his back, running my fingers through all of his silky hair.

"If you would please provide a sample Albus..." He held out a container and Albus took it, walking slowly past us, shoulders slumped, feet shuffling.

"What did you do? He is not well enough to do this again so soon!" Michael laid into me, cursing at me in both German and English, "You should not have attempted this again! It was risky the first time around, you should not have done it!"

"We didn't."

"...What?"

"We didn't. We weren't trying. That is what has Albus so upset. We were **not **trying."

"Oh."

"Yeah...we..." I thought of what we _had_ done, a bit of creative transfiguration, but could not bring myself to say.

Albus returned with the sample, and Michael left the room, "I will be back in a few minutes with the result."

Albus sat in a chair across the room, slumped forward and the silence was tugged to and fro by an occasional heaving gasp as he silently sobbed. I remained where I was, my head in my hands, and I was glad when Michael came back. He held a strip in his hand, thankfully absent of the sample, and looked grimly at us.

"Yes. This is a positive result. You're pregnant Albus."

Albus' silence broke with a low whimper, "What should we do?"

"I will be honest with you Herr Gellert, it should not be allowed to come to term. I am not as certain as I was with your first child that Herr Albus will survive this second pregnancy. Especially not so soon after the first. His body is still too weak to deal with this. Remember that he carried little Arcturus when he was at the peak of health."

"I see..."

"I know this is a hard choice, but it may mean a choice between you and your child Albus."

"I know...you should both know what my answer is."

"No! You can not...Albus..." The answer was like someone had doused me with ice water.

"I'm sorry Gellert, I'm committed to him now. Especially since we seem to have done this somehow without the aid of magic."

"Albus...if I lose you...I will be nothing!"

"I'm sorry. I can't get rid of him." He stood, and before I could stop him, had darted out the door. I could only sit, my head in my hands, waving Michael away.

* * *

Over the next months, Albus deteriorated much farther than he had ever with Arcturus. There were days now where he could not rise out of bed. Most worrying was the fact he was in _pain_, which he had seldom been before. Michael came at regular intervals, to check on his health, and to do whatever he could to ease the pain for him. It gutted me to know I'd hurt him again, and could do nothing to ease his pain.

Arcturus was crawling now, and to get my mind off of my husband's state, I played often with him. A part of me was glad he was too small to understand why papa was so sick. Today we were playing with a small ball, which we were rolling back and forth, while I tried to get him to say various words in English and Deutsch. So far it was mostly a stream of random sounds, though he seemed delighted when I talked and played with him.

I had moved Albus to the tower room, where he could watch us if he was awake, which nowadays he was often not, no matter how noisily Arcturus and I played. I worried for him, especially when Michael insisted that he bring in various gadgets for when we would need them. Other healers assisting him with spell and potion to set up the menagerie of devices.

Albus had a few days ago stopped responding to me, and I could not wake him from his abnormal sleep. Michael called it a "_Koma_" and had advised me Albus would soon need assistance to stay alive, and I had made the painful decision that he must be fed another way. So now a potion cocktail dripped from a bag over his head, connected to his veins via a slender tube, and other tubes and such devices trailed from his frail body, some pulsing with energy, others mundane and simple. The sight of it intimidated me, _what if he never woke up? What if this killed him...?_

Albus was dressed in white linen and covered by a white blanket. He looked awful, his cheeks sunken, eyes darkened and sunken also, his skin like parchment to the touch. I had cut down a suggestion that his hair be cut, and it was in a tight braid currently for the ease of the healers that attended to him when Michael was not there to do so. Little Arcturus did not understand, but I held him up to see his Papa anyway and we would spend time near him. My hope was that maybe my voice and the voice of his son would bring him out of this and he would awaken, though I knew it was a pipe dream.

The public had heard news of Arcturus' strange birth and the current plight that had befallen Albus though they did not know that this pregnancy had been accidental. So, every once in a while, a group of reporters, writers, or well wishers would appear, escorted by several of our personal guards, Muggle and wizard both. The whole country now held its breath while their golden boy wasted away. There was much criticism in my direction regarding it, and I did not discourage it this time, it was my fault I felt. Mine for not making sure that what we had done to initiate Arcturus' conception would be temporary, mine for not asking Michael to check. Mine for wanting him so badly after it all, our carelessness leading to this.

As the days dragged on, and the curve of Albus' belly became bigger, and he thinner, the first feeling of true fear crept up on me. I spent all my time in the white room, as the media called it, at his side, feeling sick with worry, lonely and worried that he would not recover. Michael had done everything in his power to keep his body alive during this, but there was not now a guarantee now that Albus would ever awaken again. What could I do? Michael had mentioned to me that if there was a way to save him, it would be through magic, and I had obsessively poured through many tomes, desperate for anything that might help, often staying up into the late hours, piles and piles of tomes littering the floor by my ever present chair.

Only for the hallows had I ever searched so insistently for something, and I was not alone. Scholars would send me tomes, doctors periodicals, and I devoured the knowledge in all of them. I found something, about 34 weeks into this ill fated pregnancy that might be the answer I needed. A soul binding spell, that would link the life forces of two people together in such a way that they would share magical and physical power and strength. The risk was that it could fail, especially when used upon an unconscious person, so there was the very real risk that I could be pulled into darkness too and be unable to re-emerge. The other possible problem was that if I failed, and did awaken with the bond intact, but he did not wake, he would weaken me until I died too. I had to be strong enough to be able to pull us _both_ out.

Regardless, I did not see a choice. If he died naturally, I would be devastated, bond or no bond. I could not envision a world in which he was not there, the very possibility was bleak and grey. On my order we arranged the room in a disturbingly similar way to the way it had been on the happy occasion of Arcturus' conception, and the memory cut me like shards of stained glass. I wondered if he would hate me for taking this step, for he would be forever dependent on me, and I on him, until the day one of us died.

Thirty eight weeks. Albus barely breathes now, and they have charmed his lungs to do so for him. He is so thin under the white linen that it looks as if he will be crushed by his burgeoning belly. It had been confirmed around the 25th week that the child had a heartbeat, though I could not summon any of the excitement I had for hearing Arcturus' heartbeat. I tried not to think that way, but all I could see is this baby was killing him, might have already killed him.

The irony of what that crazy man had said in München when he was pregnant with Arcturus clawed at me. Now Arcturus was kept away from the white room, and he cried when I left the nursery, not understanding the grave situation at hand, and it hurt to hear his cries. I hoped again that he would not remember these dark days.

It wasn't just Albus, just us, but Bavaria, and everything that we had worked for, that could be shattered. Too much was held on the life of this one man. I had asked, that if we should die, that Michael and his new wife should raise Arcturus and this child, should it live, and they agreed to. I had not thought, in all my life, I would become this close to a Muggle, but it had happened, and I was grateful for his loyalty and service to me and my family.

* * *

Finally, the day came and we were ready. I sat beside Albus, wondering if my resolve would hold. I would have to do this as soon as the baby was born, for that was the time when Albus would have the hardest time clinging to life. He would be completely helpless, and I had to pull him back to life before it was too late. It was a risk, but I had asked Michael also to check, to remove the organ that he was now certain existed that had nurtured the baby, so this could not happen again. It would cost him precious blood, but I did not want to take chances. Two healers stood along with our personal guard, ready to try to resuscitate us should things go in the wrong direction for both of us. I would be helpless as my husband was now, and the guard was to make sure that if anyone moved against us, they would be dealt with.

It was swift, this time, and the smell of blood caused me to choke, though I held my own this time, breathing hard as I tried to tune it out, pressing a scented handkerchief over my nose and mouth. Cuts were made to his bare body, no blanket this time around as they worked, and I buried my face against Albus' neck, partly out of nausea, and partly to combat the sparks of rage that flared up.

"If you are going to attempt, now would be the time." one of the healers said gently. I drew a sigil on his forehead, placed my wand and my hands to it, and was enveloped in black.

_**-Albus-**_

My world was blackness and I could not escape it. I wanted to leave, but there was no way to see, no way to claw my way up again, and for long periods I knew nothing. I cried out to the blackness, desperate that someone might hear me, that Gellert might come and save me, like every day I was awake like this. I could feel piercing, unimaginable pain, and screamed, begging someone, anyone to take me away from this place. I could not run from it, and it was everywhere, my whole existence, and the strain threatened to tear me apart.

Today I was not alone. Gellert's voice echoed through the darkness and I honed onto it, like a drowning man to the air, calling out to him. I could not see him but I could feel him, all around me. He was saying something, but it was nothing like words, and I felt him touch me, and the world turned upside down and I gasped for breath, my eyes snapping open as I broke through the blackness. I could hear screaming, and realized it was me and my throat burned, but I could not quell it. I could hear Gellert breathing heavily, I could feel his fear, his pain, hear his screams, the pain, worry.._.his, mine?_ I could see...him looking at me, me looking at him and I had to close my eyes as a wave of nausea washed over me. I was aware that I could see but not what it meant, and there was pain and Gellert, and...I could hear him pleading for me not to go back to that black place, and I clung to his words.

_**-Gellert-**_

I didn't know how much this would hurt, clenching my teeth to stifle my own screams. Guilt welled up in me for putting him through this and I felt his mind against mine, and his exasperated response to my guilt, mixed with pain and relief. It was like he had been...well he _had_ been cut in the stomach, I could feel everything he did, and for a moment,_** see **_everything also. It was with great relief when Michael gave him, (us?) an injection, which spread blessed numbness. I panted heavily, feeling the pull of energy from Albus, and I fed it, anything to keep us alive now. I lay against his chest, unable to be separate from him, our heartbeats like a thousand drums in my ears, in perfect sync. We were both given sleeping draughts, and I could feel his disgust at the taste, and he doubtless my own, and I sunk into unconsciousness.


	27. Half My Heart

**Author's Note:**The time has come for the Godwin's Law part of the fic!

**Half My Heart**

_**-Albus-**_

The next weeks were spent between my own convalescence and Gellert and I learning to live again. That he had sacrificed it all, his life, this country, for me, was humbling. It was strange, to be this close, to know his thoughts without a spell, and I thought this might be how Elphias feels. Our new son had been named Nicholaus, and had been born relatively healthy given my own precarious health while carrying him, only a little bit underweight. He was a quiet baby, unlike Arcturus, who was now walking and terrorizing the entire castle with his antics. Everyone keeps an eye on him, though there is little here he can hurt himself with that he can actually reach. He does not understand Nicholaus, and is jealous of him also, but only a little, as young children are.

Gellert was in the next room, in our room, and I was in the nursery. For a long time, we could not be out of arms distance from each other. Slowly, we are adapting, though I can still hear his thoughts when he is close, even through walls, and he mine. It is rather distracting, especially when we are close. The Nanny still takes care of the children for us, but we try to see them at least for a few minutes each day.

Nicholaus is looking at me through unfocused eyes as I charm the mobile above his crib, giggling softly as birds and stars and moons play a game over his head, kept just out of his reach by glowing magical strings. Arcturus has attached himself to my leg, standing on my long robes, babbling to me about something or other and I ruffle his hair.

Nicholaus ended up looking much paler than Arcturus, with a head of platinum hair, but he has my freckles, and I wonder if his hair will darken when he is older. His eyes are a chocolatey brown, much darker than Gellert's eyes. Nicholaus' hair is much straighter than that of his older brother, though still soft. Arcturus now has a head of loose, wavy curls that fall just past his ears, the same ridiculous orange colour that he was born with not faded in the least.

I feel Gellert enter the room, his mind on much more explicit things, as I turn to kiss him, And he relays them to me in great detail, what he'd like to do to me today. We have learned to speak without words, our bond is so strong that words are hardly needed. I think it would be useful for us in combat also, and Gellert agrees, 'we will be unstoppable', he says, and I smile. He pulls Arcturus from my leg, and he cries indignantly, and Gellert has to pry handfuls of my robes out of his chubby hands. Then he swings his son up and places him easily on his shoulders. Arcturus placates himself by grabbing fistfuls of Gellert's curly hair, and I laugh at Gellert's expression of mild discomfort.

The Nanny enters and laughs, asking me how I am feeling.

"I am well, though I fear Arcturus is quite excitable today!" Immediately Arcturus demands that he get down, and he runs over to hug her skirts. The children are close to her, but we are not so much, she is staff like any of the people that work and live here to Gellert and I. Michael stays and spends much of his time doing research, and is training to be useful in healing war wounds, which we are seeing more and more at the hospital as the war escalates.

I spend much of my time in München, trying to negotiate with various other politicians, and time with Gellert pouring over tactical maps with a small core of trusted advisers. It was just Gellert and I today, looking over a map we had charmed so that you could see the details in three dimensions. It was difficult remaining a neutral country amongst so much unrest, and we spent much of our time defending ourselves.

Someone was stirring up trouble in our territory, and we were alert. The month before we had taken down a foolish man that had tried to take people in a beer hall hostage at a talk by one of our associates. He still lives, but is incarcerated now, for treason. When he is released, he will not be able to return to Bavaria, and I hope that he has learned that we are not the easy pickings that he thought we were.

It was physical and mental agony to be far away and we could not spend any time where we were more than a few metres apart, so we often were together in a way that we were not before, having to do our business together by necessity I felt that it might be months before we were really able to be apart for significant periods and distances.

Mere months later, and though it still ached when we were apart, it was business as usual for us. The word was that this man, Herr Hitler, was raising an army. We, like Switzerland, were a neutral nation, to the point where any sort of military activity was steadfastly repelled, good guys or bad guys. It worried me, but we were kept very busy and I had put it out of my mind for now.


	28. Follow The Stars Home

**Follow the Stars Home**

**-Albus-**

It is Christmas and various people wander from room to room, a small gathering of our closest friends and confidants. I am standing in the kitchen, and can only hear the faint murmur of people as I cut pieces of marzipan, a small army of house elves scuttling to and fro at my feet. Grudgingly they have allowed me to come to work in 'their' kitchen, when I need some distraction to take my mind off of the responsibility of leading a country.

One pipes up, still flecked with snow from outside, and hands me a torn piece of paper. On it are the words, "For the Greater Good", a drop of blood splattered into the place where the circle would be upon the Hallows symbol. This is the sign I have been looking for, and I cast a subtle spell, watching with satisfaction as it glows blue before fizzling out of existence in a puff of white smoke. Though physical changes can be wrought with polyjuice, blood type cannot, and this was an essential point.

"Show me, and be quiet, I don't want the others to know where I have been gone." I turn to the kitchen and whisper to the suddenly alert staff, "If anyone asks, you do not know where I am!" They chorus their understanding. I follow the house elf, pulling my winter robes around me and taking the hand of the elf and we disappear.

Snow swirls around my feet, and though I cannot see the castle when I instinctively look back, I know that it is there. I am not so far from the castle, still well within our protective wards. A woman stands not far from me, clothed in a flimsy white robe that is too thin for the season. She is shivering, but stands proudly still, and she is staring at me.

"Pocket full of lye" I say to her.

"Bottle full of rain" she says in response, stepping forward.

I smile down at her, and take her hands, "You are most welcome here."

She smiles wanly at me, "It's Christmas, and finally I can meet them"

"Shall we?"

"Please, this robe is too flimsy for this weather, but I had little else that was proper." I offer my arm, and she takes it, and I take the hand of the house elf, and we disappear.

We appear just inside the throne room, and everyone turns to us, for apparation is not possible within the walls of the castle, to anyone but Gellert and I. She lowers her hood, revealing silvery curls over a face that is lined by time, but eyes that are still bright. I have kept my thoughts carefully shielded today, and as I drop the protection, I can feel Gellert's confusion turn into shock.

"_Mutter..._?" She smiles brightly then, a true smile, and he rushes towards her, enveloping her in a tight embrace, lifting her small body off the ground in his exuberance.

Only I hear his soft "I missed you terribly..." and I blink back tears.

In all these years, though Gellert has done everything to gain the favour of his father, he has remained a pariah to him, depriving Gellert of the comfort of his family, and our children of the grandparents that they should have. Gellert does not conceal his tears, and I can feel how much the rejection has hurt him. But this last winter had brought about the death of his father, thus freeing his mother of her bond to him.

The tender moment is interrupted by a chorus of "OMA!" and Arcturus and Nicholas running up to cling to her as well, standing on the tips of their toes. Arcturus reaches almost to her neck now, he is ten and growing so fast that I wonder if he will be taller than her even before he hits puberty. Nicholas is shorter, his growth much slower than Arcturus, despite the scant 10 months that separate them in age. They are both excitedly talking to her, and she ruffles their hair and hugs them to her.

Gellert caresses my cheek, and I answer his unspoken question, "She will stay with us from now on."

"_Und Vater?" _

"Dead." I say with a little too much venom. Gellert shudders but says nothing. He doesn't ask how and I don't tell him, keeping that detail firmly tamped down in my mind.

The boys are happily tearing at the pretty paper of a few presents and we join Gellert's mother at the small table by the huge fir tree. It's decorated lavishly with shining strings of gold and silver, and live fairies nestle among the needles. Under it, a plethora of brightly wrapped presents sit, and this is where our sons are curled among a growing sea of crumpled paper.

She hands them the parcels from under the tree, adding a few others that she has pulled from her traveling robes, and restores their original size.


	29. In My Brother's Shadow

******Author's Note: ABRUPT PERSPECTIVE CHANGE. Only for this chapter. Yes its descending into crazy. Sorry. Carry on. **

**In My Brother's Shadow**

_**-Arcturus-**_

I did not want to be their heir, I did not want to rule the world! I just wanted to be able to **see** the world! Day after day they groom me to take their place, the 'right' of the first-born they say. I don't want to. I see my brother skulk around the slightly open door and get up, causing my tutor to sputter indignantly at my audacity, but letting me pass.

"Nicholaus!" He looks like he's been caught in the cookie jar, and I can't help laughing.

"Why are you sulking out here?" He frowns and clenches his fists, growling under his breath. We are of the age where our bodies are just starting to change, the flood of hormones making us irritable and stubborn. He is not so much younger than I am, less than a year younger, and I understand his frustration at the world. I think he would be more suited for this, he's more patient than I am.

"Because its the only way I'll learn! But _you_ get to be the heir, and I'm stuck being the second best! Why couldn't I have been born first!" He stared at me, chocolate brown eyes narrowed to slits, and all I could do was gape at being close in age, we were not really close brothers, and I had not known at all that he desired to be the heir of all this nonsense. _This works out perfectly for me!_

"You actually _want_ to do this?"

"YES! I've always wanted to follow in the footsteps of our parents and rule over this place! Its what I was born to do! Except I had the bad luck of being born _second!_"

I held my hands up as he drew close to me, thinking I was probably in line for a good pummeling if I didn't say the right thing. "But_ I don't _want to do this! This is perfect!" I clamped my hands on his shoulders and shook him a little in my excitement. "We can just switch places!"

Nicholaus was looking at me suspiciously. "Is this another one of your pranks? 'Cause it's not very funny!"

I shook my head so hard that my hair caught in my glasses, and I impatiently untangled it as I kept talking, "But, you want to do it, and I don't! _Please!_ I don't want to be saddled with this! I want to be free to see the world, not rule over it!"

He stepped back, his gaze over my shoulder, and I turned to see my tutor watching us, an exhasperated expression on his angular face. "Are you quite done? There are still lessons to be learned!"

I met my brother's eyes and in a flash we were running from him, darting into dark, secret corridors until we could no longer hear the tutor calling for us.

"We need to find our parents." I said, hands on my knees as we caught our breath. "They need to hear our side of this. There's no need for us both to be miserable!"

We found them in the White Room, poring over a map. Papa Albus looked up first from the protective curl of our father's arm and smiled at us.

"What are you two doing out of lessons?" His voice held no trace of anger, and I let out an anxious sigh. Tugging my brother along with me, we came to stand before the map, opposite our parents.

"We have a preposition to make."

Father's blonde eyebrows shot up but he said nothing, and our papa only watched us with those piercing blue eyes of his. Neither of us could hold his gaze as he looked us over, and he put down the parchment he was holding to regard us over his glasses. "Well then, out with it!"

They looked at us expectantly, and I explained Nicholaus' desire to be in my shoes, and my own desire to see the world. At the end, they considered us for a moment, then turned to each other in that odd way that said they were talking in their minds, blue gaze to amber for an agonizing minute of silence.

"Very well." Papa put a finger up to silence our happy cries, "However, neither of you are getting out of tutoring." We both groaned at that, for Herr Tasse was terribly boring. "When you are considered ready, I have a task that you will enjoy doing Arcturus." He waved his arms dismissively at us, and we left before they had the chance to change their minds, meandering slowly back to the tutor and our future.


	30. Lay You Down To Die

**Author's Note: Well this is the promised Godwin's Law. Enjoy! :D**

**Lay You Down to Die**

**_-Albus-_**

"You can't possibly expect me to just sit and _wait_ while you take him on alone! What ever happened to seeing this out together?!" I could not believe that Gellert wanted to confront our mortal enemy, Herr Hitler alone. Gellert wanted me to just _sit back_ and let _him_ deal with it._ No chance._ There was no way I would back down from this.

"Albie, he has a price on your head! I can't let you stand in the fire!"

I clenched my teeth at the implication that I could not defend myself. This was the closest to an actual argument we'd had in years. "I will not back down on this Gellert. We stand together or not at all."

He threw his hands up in frustration, and I could sense his unease, but I could not waver, it was a matter of Gryffindor pride. He pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed, "_Fein_. But..." He turned to me, and I could feel his worry wash over me in icy waves. I sighed and caressed his cheek, and he leaned into my touch.

"I can hold my own. I do have the _unbeatable_ wand after all." I smiled and kissed him tenderly, running the tip of my wand across his cheek, and he shivers before backing away slightly.

"He is meeting us at the rendezvous point at eight, an hour from now. Come, we must make haste!" He grabs my hand and we make our way to our brooms, flying away over the forest.

_**-Gellert-**_

We land at the rendezvous point and I try to swallow my apprehension. Despite some of our best efforts, its hard to deflect a bullet with magic, and some Muggles have used this to their advantage. There are even some wizards that have sided with them and this Hitler in this war, teaching them how to charm their bullets to pierce magical shields. We lost a group to that sort of guerrilla warfare just two weeks prior, and my mind is on their deaths as we walk up to the top of the hill.

At the top there is only one tree, not quite large enough to provide shade, but large enough to be obvious from a distance. It is here we stand, waiting. I did not want Albus to come, because I am afraid that he will be shot. I am very aware from our intel that this Hitler considers _him_ to be the real threat, and thinks that if he eliminates Albus, it will turn me to his cause. I shake my head, the logic has so many flaws, I do not know where to start. We will end this. For we have a very good reason.

I pull out a crumpled parchment, sent by the Muggle president of America, Franklin Roosevelt. On it is an ultimatum:

_Bring down Hitler, or your child dies._

I crumple it again, angry tears pricking my eyes. It had been my idea to send Arcturus to America as an ambassador to try to convince the Muggle president to ally with us. At this point, we were under siege from Hitler's forces, and it would be only a matter of time till we fell if we did not secure an alliance. Unfortunately, the events of Pearl Harbor changed American opinion of the war quite quickly, and suddenly our son was held at ransom instead of being entertained as our Ambassador. We have no choice now but to face the enemy head on. It took me weeks to convince Hitler of a private meeting, far from immediate intervention.

A dark figure trudges up the hill, masked in the shadow of this early morning. I cast a subtle spell, but detect nobody but the three of us here. Albus is in the shadows behind me, and Hitler sneers at him. "We agreed to meet alone Herr Grindeldore."

An idea pops into my head just then, and I think at Albus, _play along._ "Yes, we did, but there is a matter to be taken care of, isn't there?" I gestured to Albus and met his eyes for a second, _trust me. _

"Ah yes. There is a weakness in you Herr Grindeldore, and it stands before you." He smiles nastily.

"Quite. _Expelliarmus!_" Albus cries out as his wand flies into the murky fog at our feet, out of sight. In the next movement I stun him, and he lands against the tree, panic flashing in his eyes.

"Gellert..." I stand over him, the picture of triumph, my wand pointed between his eyes, and he scrambles to his feet, back to the trunk. "Its about time that I rid myself of you and fulfil my destiny!" I spat at him. Beside me, Hitler smiles grimly at my hesitance.

"Perhaps you need assistance." I hear the click of a pistol being loaded, and I swallow. "Do it Herr Grindeldore, or I will."

He doesn't give me time to reply in kind, I hear him cock the pistol and its all I can do to push Albus out of the way, _Aveda Kedavra_ out of my mouth as we go down, pain exploding in my chest. Hitler's look of betrayal goes unnoticed by either of us.

Time seems to stop, and then we hit the ground. Hitler does not move. I can barely breath for the tightness in my chest, and Albus is gasping and hacking up blood under me. "Albus..."

His shoulders shake with silent amusement as he grinds out,"You did...try to warn me..."

I _accio_ his wand to me, putting it into one of my pockets. Then I gather him as best I can through the red haze of pain and return us to the castle, screaming for Michael as soon as we land in the throne room. He comes immediately, being told to stay alert for today. Albus has fallen unconscious, his chest fluttering with every labourous breath. The bullet had hit him just below his right collarbone, and the blood seeped thickly from the wound. I lay him on the floor as Michael approached, unconsciously clutching my own chest. I could not suppress a groan when Michael pulled the bullet out using a pair of tweezers. I sat on the floor and tried to steady my breath.

"Such a small thing, yet it does so much damage..." Frau Schwarz was with him, and held out a tray, upon which he set the bullet and took the stitching from her. Albus groaned and I held onto his hand, letting the power flow between us, laden with pain. He shook and I clutched at his hand, gasping at the sharp pain.

"Just relax Herr Gellert..."

I felt my arm tied and then the prick of a needle, and my vision swam. "I_ don't_..."

-Albus-

I awoke to searing pain in my chest, a smoldering ball of fire that seemed to gather just below my right collarbone. Beside me, I could feel Gellert's presence, still asleep. His chest rose and fell steadily, and one hand rested flat against my stomach. Slowly the events of the last day, came back to me. _I was...shot._ _That man...Hitler._ I rubbed my temple with my free hand, attempting to clear the fuzz._ Why? _I grasped to remember something important...

_Arcturus!_ I sat up abruptly, and Gellert looked at me blearily as I scrambled out of bed. I clutched my chest, gasping for breath at the pain every movement caused. I pulled on my robes hastily, and Gellert stood, wrapping his arms around me.

"Where are you going _mein liebe_? You are not well..."

"Arcturus, I must go get Arcturus."

"Albus..."

"No. They were going to kill him. We must assume the worst from them."

"You can't, you've been shot! You're not well!" Gellert pulled on his robes and clung to me again.

"I have to go."

"Albus...you don't..."

"We visited there in the summer of 1900, do you remember?"

"I..." Gellert looked mutinous that I remembered that we'd visited America before.

_I had to get Arcturus. Before he was killed..._

I twisted in his embrace, and felt the uncomfortable freezing squeeze like a shard of ice through my chest.

I saw grass under me as I fell to my knees, overwhelmed by pain.

_**-Gellert-**_

We ended up in the the midst of frost covered grass that poked my exposed skin. Moonlight spilled over us and I looked up at the moon in a daze, trying to shake off the reflection of Albus' pain. We were sitting on the green in front of the White House, and already there were guards that ran towards us. I could do no more than clutch my chest through the haze of shared pain of Albus' wounds and let them take us inside.

I explained who we were through clenched teeth, trying very hard in the presence of others not to give away so much of our secret. I squared my shoulders and balled my fists, my fingernails digging so hard into my palms that I was sure I would draw blood. There was much commotion over Albus' wound, and after we were not judged a threat, we were escorted to a safer place. It took a long time for me to explain that the snap they had heard was not gunshot, and Albus had not sustained the wound on the grounds.

I was sleepy, the affects of the sedatives they'd given Albus affecting me slightly, as they deliberated what to do with us. Presently, the President Roosevelt came to talk to us, after I insisted that I had information regarding the war effort was top secret.

"Herr Grindeldore?" _A memory on this one for faces,_ I thought.

I nodded, for Albus was asleep in my arms. I tried to draw myself more upright, leaning against the wooden headboard for support. It was hard to be dignified in such a position, and Albus mumbled uncomfortably when I moved.

"You have information for me. I trust that it is good news then?" He looks over my fallen mate, and the obvious bandages around his chest.

_I didn't do this for __**you**__. _I thought savagely. I clench my teeth and nod, it would not do us well to tell him off now, though I desperately wished to do so.

"Yes, are we quite alone?" He nods.

"Your man is dead."

Herr Roosevelt doesn't smile. I did not expect he would. "Very good. We will be wanting proof of course."

"Of course. I will bring him to wherever you wish tomorrow morning, at nine hundred hours. Do you have coordinates for the rendezvous?"

"If you would follow me, I will take you there." He says, already turning to go. I hesitate, looking at my helpless husband, and he places a hand on my shoulder. "He did good. He will be safe here while we escort you."

We walk silently through the quiet halls. Roosevelt and his Service Agents all load into a helicopter, and we make it to the rendezvous point. I look around the warehouse, memorizing the location to return later via apparation. I suppress a grim grin at the final fate of our nemesis. "This is all I need Herr Roosevelt. Thank you."

It is still night when I wake, though just barely so. I carefully leave Albus sleeping and apparate from the spot. _No anti-apparation wards, a risky thing in these times. Too bad that I will not be informing him of it. He can learn the hard way._

It is midmorning in the place where I have left his body. It is still crumpled in the dewy grass, and I resist the urge to kick the corpse savagely. It is with distaste that I levitate the body and while maintaining the barest of contact with it, disappear again. Before anyone can say anything, I unceremoniously drop the corpse at the rendezvous spot and disappear.


	31. Spilled Into The Sunlight

**Author's Note: I really love Arcturus, even if he's pretty much everything his parents didn't want him to be.**

**Spilled Into The Sunlight**

_**-Arcturus-**_

"Papa...you should not worry so much about me..." I'm by Papa Albus' bedside as he struggles to sit upright. I've only been recently released from the custody of the guards, and I still do not know the circumstance that has my papa in such pain.

"Arcturus...you're ok..." His voice is soft and doesn't crack, though I can see by his eyes and tense posture that he is in great pain. I never understood why he did this, it was always obvious to Nicholaus and I that he was in pain, what did he spare us by not showing it?

"Y...Yes I'm fine. They've been quite nice to me here..." I reply, and it's true. Sure, they took my wand and confined me to a room on the second floor called the Blue Room, but I was not mistreated, and I told him so.

"They...did not hurt you?"

"No! I was treated quite well." He leans towards me and I coax him back onto the pillows. "I even made a friend!"

"A friend? While imprisoned?" Papa looked over his glasses at me, in that way that usually means that he is quite skeptical, a warning that the person he's speaking to is on shaky ground.

"Yes!" I tell him about 'Sistie', the President's precocious granddaughter. Forbidden was not a word she took to heart, and it did not take her long to discover the mystery behind the man in the Blue Room. She was the darling of the household, and they could not deny her anything. It turned out we were almost the same age, she was a mere two years younger, and we got along quite well. She'd never heard of the magical before, and I showed her what I could, and she showed me all the wonderful Muggle things that I never had seen before. In the last few months we'd gotten pretty close.

"I see..." He quirked his eyebrows at me, and I blushed darkly under his scrutiny. There was a crack behind me and I squeaked and flinched, turning to see my father standing there. He brushed wrinkles out of his robes with a look of absolute distaste on his face.

"Father!" I jumped up and hugged him tightly, and he returned it with equal exuberance.

"I am glad to see you are well!" Father said as he held me at arm's length. "It does not look like you were imprisoned at all!"

"I was a political prisoner, they treated me with due respect." Satisfied, he releases me and goes to kneel at Papa's side. They look at each other in that silent way that I'd become used to over the years, in the silence that was common of those that could speak telepathically. Father sighs heavily and helps Papa to sit upright, climbing into bed and supporting him with an arm.

"Arcturus?" My parents do not hear the whisper, lost in each other as they are. I turn to the door to see Sistie there, peeking through the sliver of space. I look back at my parents, but they pay me no attention, my father busy fussing over Papa, and Papa looking as if he will fall back asleep at any moment. I slip out of the door and close it quietly behind me.

"Are those your parents?" I nod, focused on her pretty face. I'd asked her grandfather for her hand in marriage, and he'd grudgingly given his blessing this morning upon my release. I knew my parents would be less than thrilled, and I was not looking forward to telling them. I hoped desperately that she would say yes, I'd never met anyone that interested me as much as she did.

I took her by the hand and let her away, downstairs until we reached the garden. There among the roses, I fell to my knees, "Will you marry me?" I presented her with a ring, magically conjured into my open palm, a beautiful pink diamond with rubies set in wings along each side. Tears ran down her face, and my blood ran cold, _Did I do it wrong somehow? _I thought. But she was on her knees and was hugging me fiercely to her, and I knew what her answer was before she whispered, "Yes."


	32. What Thoughts

**What Thoughts**

___**-Albus-**_

When Arcturus came into the room with the Muggle girl on his arm, I knew what was going on. Beside me, I could feel Gellert tense and I elbowed him. _Don't you dare say anything Gellert._

"You have something to tell us." It wasn't a question, and my son looked sheepish, shying away from Gellert's fierce glare.

"Yes...I...Well..." Arcturus stumbled over the words, falling silent.

"May I have a name young lady?"

"Anna, but everyone calls me 'Sistie'" She blushed and looked down at her shoes as well, together they looked like two small children about to be scolded.

_But she's a...Muggle!_ Gellert protested silently to me, and I sighed. _Let them have their happiness Gellert. _He grumbled and thought dark things at me. _But...She will taint our bloodline!_ I turned to him, the movement causing me to moan softly as pain shot through my chest, and he hissed in response to the echo of it. _We remade the world Gellert. It's time we walked down the road that we so often talk about._ He sighed through his nose and glared at me, as if he were going to win this argument. _Fein, you win, this time. _I just chuckled, _I win every time my love._ He turned all the way away from me mock-dramatically and covered his head with the fluffy down comforter.

Sistie giggled and I looked up at them, "You're an interesting pair!"

I smiled at her and Gellert's theatrics. "You'll find us all very..._interesting_ indeed! I trust you have never interacted with magical folk before you met my son?"

"No, just Arcturus. I'm excited to know more about your world!" She gestured to Gellert, still under the covers, "I take it he doesn't like me..."

"Don't mind him, he will get used to it. He doesn't have a choice." I poked my husband with one long finger, and he yelped indignantly. "It's a long story, perhaps we will share it someday. In any case, congratulations!"

"But we didn't..." Arcturus said.

"I didn't need you to tell me, the ring on her finger and our earlier conversation confirms everything quite clearly for me." I smiled at them, perhaps they would have a chance at happiness and a normal life now that the war was drawing to a close.


	33. Epilogue: Bumblebee Wings

**Author's Note: This is the conclusion. I'm sorry that there isn't more to this. I hope it wasn't too weird for you, and that you mostly enjoyed the ride! Thank you for reading and being patient with me! I'd love to know what you thought of it all!**

**Bumblebee Wings**

_**-Gellert-**_

Funny how time passes like the caress of bumblebee wings. That summer that started it all is just a flicker of memory to me, replaced by so many other memories, sweetness mixed with bitterness. It's hard to believe that so much time has went by, it hardly feels like I have lived through over a century of life.

I did not like the Muggle girl at first, but she has grown upon me like Michael has. And, contrary to what I thought, every single one of our grandchildren and great-grandchildren have been magical. I think that the most I've learned from all of this is that Muggles have their uses and places in the world after all. In Bavaria at least, no wizard or witch walks in fear. In other places, the revolution is just beginning. I hope that they will be as successful as we have been.

Time grows short for Albus and I. I know, though he tries to hide it, that his health is failing. As much as I adore our children now, coercing him into bearing them himself is one of my biggest regrets, for he has never recovered quite fully in health. Still, it is charming to know that the grandchildren that visit us from time to time are ours in blood.

Albus looks out the window from where he is propped in bed, and I feel our connection all the more strongly now, each heartbeat precious. Thankfully, he is aware, and though it pains me to think of his brushes with death, this time he goes into it willingly. I hold his hand and caress the dark ring on his finger. _Not masters of death after all..._

I feel his amusement, touched with only a trace of bitterness. _No, but I do not regret what we have accomplished. We will go into this together. _He squeezes my hand, and tears shine in his eyes. _I had hoped I would not take you with me on this adventure._

_I will always be at your side. Do not regret this next adventure. You will not be alone. _He sighs and closes his eyes, and I lean my head on his shoulder as his heartbeat skips. I try not to be scared, but he catches my fear and squeezes my hand. _We will be together. Do not be afraid._ I'm not, and neither is he. Whatever we find on the other side we will face together.


End file.
